Excerpt from Version 1.01, the Perfectly Updated Version of 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 City Conflict Contracts

There is almost nothing more messed up in the Verdant Kingdom than city conflict contracts. They aren't even viewed as important enough to capitalize them!

These contracts allow cities to essentially turn to warring mini-kingdoms. They are mostly used to put political pressure on cities from their neighbors but man can they escalate!

The crux of the contracts is they are a formal declaration of some grievance that one city wants another to rectify in some way.

The most common contracts are initiated when a company – or usually a group of companies – works to undercut a key industry in another city. Sometimes that is in collusion with the city but often isn't.

There are of course other – usually bullshit – reasons cited, but economic interests are the most common reasons they escalate from trade wars to potentially actual wars. Especially if the companies or industries impacted are those where the city Councilors are heavily involved.

Recent Contract Example

Panla Luska, on the western coast of the Kingdom, put pressure on its smaller neighbor Biowack to stop horning in on its tuna fishing territories and set some specific boundaries for where ships from Biowack's port could go. Panla Luska stopped all magically-reinforced fishing lines from going to the smaller city until they agreed, setting up road checks for merchants along the way.

The resolution (see below) was Panla Luska's fishing territory boundaries shrunk by 20% instead of the other way around.

Cities initiating a city conflict contract are called, uncreatively, Initiators. Though most people call them Bullies. Those one the receiving end are called Initiated but most people call them Victims.

Contract Resolutions

The most common resolution is a contract is threatened, the cities simply talk it out, and they come to an agreement before said contract is actually officially initiated. The nobles, especially those on the Council, of any Bully city who initiate a particularly egregious conflict contract are known to meet with 'accidents' and the contracts are suddenly resolved.

The other most common way to resolve a city conflict contract is battle by champions. Either a single representative or a team will battle the other, and to the winner goes the spoils. Prior to the actual battle, both sides – often with the help of a mediator representative from Zalano and/or the monarchy itself – will decide on the terms of what happens if either side wins. That way it isn't the victor declaring ridiculous terms after-the-fact.

Victim cities usually win as other cities will send their strongest champions to fight for them. Nobody wants Bullies targeting their own city.

Most battles are held in fighting arenas to protect the participants from significant injury but it is not a requirement and there have been deaths. There were two suspected instances in the last 25 years of cities colluding around conflict contracts to raise revenue via the subsequent battles, with significant betting and advertising dollars pouring in.

The last way contracts are resolved is a nod to 'the old ways' but is likely to lead to significant backlash. The Bully may say that the Victim is not complying with the laws or acting in good faith in negotiations around how to resolve the disagreement. In such case, the Bully will siege the Victim.

However, the last time this occurred and the Victim city was destroyed, the surrounding smaller cities – likely with the backing of other rivals to the larger city – sieged the Bully, destroying a significant amount of the city and its walls. Then, the nobles of the Bully city mysteriously kept having 'accidents', their heads 'miraculously falling off their bodies', until most of the remaining nobles who supported the contract fled.

The Bloody and Embarrassing History of City Conflict Contracts

While only three city conflict contracts have actually been officially initiated in the last decade, they were used for a full 122 year stretch with a growing impunity that threatened to destabilize the entire Kingdom. To that end, The Monetary Might Kingdom claimed about 20% of its land with almost no resistance.

Most of said contracts were of the 'bow to us or die' variety with Bullies regularly invading victim cities and slaughtering anyone who resisted.

There were ebbs and flows of course, with whole decades going by without a major incident. But they always came back around.

A weak series of monarchs allowed the nobles of the day to grow their power – and arrogance – to a degree the crown could no longer hold in check.

The combined greed and sense of untouchability led nobles from every major city to attempt to conquer any smaller neighboring city they could with absolutely no care for the damage caused and lives lost. The smaller cities then banded together to retaliate, which caused further escalation.

Finally, a young queen – only eighteen at the time – ascended the throne after her weak-willed father mysteriously perished and said 'no more'. Of course, many prominent nobles rallied together – while still trying to stab each other in the back – to try to pressure or assassinate her.

There were even a series of conflict contracts against the capital of Zalano itself, leading to a prolonged siege. That is before two powerful warriors, dubbed 'The Capital's Courageous Champions', emerged suddenly and decimated the uncoordinated militias of the nobles before visiting said nobles in their comfortable homes.

I'm calling it Hole-Y Week as both champions were known to use their weapons – a rather impressive awl and a very delicate-looking icepick – to poke holes into said rebelling nobles. Their deaths were not quick nor painless.

The final toll was two major cities heavily damaged, one utterly destroyed, and tens of smaller cities and towns decimated – either entirely or just their economies and ways of life – before a détente was reached with the remaining noble houses. Thus, the current form of contracts was formed.

That embarrassment only ended 86 years ago.

Tumbleweeds were an interesting enemy to fight.

They were extremely difficult to damage to any significant degree with a weapon strike, as even a direct hit with anything that didn't slice through a branch just compressed some sticks together.

If they didn't have a mana and life-drain effect, it would have been relatively easy – if time-consuming – work. But we couldn't get drained in the first team delve of the day given our more challenging rift later.

Inara and Romie were having the best luck; Inara's extremely sharp daggers carved off chunks of the angry balls of living stick while Romie used arrows dipped in pitch to set the damn things ablaze.

And screaming, despite their lack of a visible mouth.

Unsettling as fuck.

Of course, that meant we had to run away from the monsters as they rolled more aggressively towards us in their death throes, using a weird and unpredictable dash ability, lest we too be immolated.

But it was still better than poking a ball of spiked branches with a sharp stick, getting said stick stuck inside – Pavel with his spear. Or smashing with a heavy stick against almost no solid surface area and also getting said stick stuck inside – me with my morningstar.

It was a physically tiring rift but that was partially the point.

Violeta, the Chazin Mark assistant, had contacted Inara and planned our delves for the day according to Inara's feedback. Councilor Salub sent Violeta a message saying our first day of delving was a bit disappointing and to help change that.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Inara said – and all but Pavel agreed – we needed better physical fitness and stamina. If we were going to fully clear two rifts a day for at least six straight days ever again, we needed to be better, with far greater staying power. We were already somewhat tired entering day four.

Inara and I worked out a relatively effective shield bash strategy where I kept a tumbleweed occupied and off her while she dashed back-and-forth 'behind' it, shredding it quickly with her daggers.

Like a pixie sprite weedwhacker.

At least it helps me with my blocking form. And it's a good challenge with their annoying movement skill.

As we reached the rift boss, we were simultaneously lucky and unlucky. Unlucky because the swirling mass of writhing limbs was the hardest iteration of the final challenge. But lucky because it usually meant a better rift reward.

Usually.

With our luck in Chazin Mark…

The battle started simply enough.

The ever-shifting ball of thick but supple tree limbs began waving wildly. Each major branch emerged from a central tree trunk on legs and split off into smaller and smaller branches that could act independently, almost like fingers.

The monster sensed our presence somehow despite our distance and let out a blood-curdling screech that rent the air, causing the ground to literally vibrate.

Romie's pitch-covered arrow of retaliation landed as the intimidation skill ended, setting one limb ablaze, and eliciting another scream, this one of pain.

But, as expected, the boss plucked the arrow out, throwing it back at us.

We easily dodged but I watched in amazement as the woody flesh resealed with only a small blackened patch to show for it.

That signaled both sides to charge.

The writhing mass of wood picked up stones to hurl our way as it began its slow trudge in our direction, Pavel and I making sure to take each projectile on our shield lest Inara get hit as we worked to get closer.

Romie continued to harass the monster, using a concussive blast arrow to knock back a group of limbs coalesced into a giant arm before it could sweep at Pavel. Their flaming arrows were more of a nuisance than a great source of damage but a distraction was greatly valued nonetheless.

I charged to within striking distance. The thicker limbs meant my morningstar, especially with its heaviness enchantment, could do some serious damage for the first time this rift.

I ducked under a branch, feeling the breeze against the back of my neck as it whooshed past. I quickly leapt over a second stick that was swinging low. Driving my foot into the passing branch, I pushed off to reach over fifteen feet (5m) in the air, bringing my weapon down as I surged mana into both it and my armor, increasing my weight to almost five times normal.

The blow, at one of the main branch attachments to the rift boss' trunk, bit deeply through the hard bark and met squishy monster flesh. It nearly rent the huge limb from the beast, greatly inhibiting the branch's ability to swing.

The resulting gout of sticky, red sap missed my face by inches.

But I couldn't savor my victory for long; five smaller limbs bent inwards, trying to crush me.

After one round of the most dangerous game of Double Dutch in either of my lives later, I was outside the main reach of flailing branches, deflecting the small sticks that came my way with ease.

Why didn't I pick up that axe before we left Velez?

Cursing my decisions, I made the best of it. Tree limbs could definitely pack a punch but the smaller fell mostly harmlessly against my enchanted shield as I pumped mana into it.

I covered Inara's foray into the heart of the boss' domain, acting as a distraction to let her slip by unnoticed.

Her cast of [Restricting Vines] seemed to incense the flailing tree more than actually restrain it.

Luckily, its indignant reaction of raising up to demolish her with all its limbs left an opening for her to dash inside its guard.

The sprightly woman stabbed both daggers to the hilt into the main trunk with such force, the entire monster swayed.

The scream and spray of sap were intense.

Mission accomplished, our leader and rogue, hands still on her daggers, braced her feet against the trunk. She pushed off with all her might, doing an ungainly backflip before landing lightly a few feet away.

Inara stuck her hip out in a sassy pose, which seemed like an idiotic idea.

But the sprightly woman knew exactly what she was doing.

The monster focused all its attention and rage on her, bending limbs at increasingly awkward angles to swipe at her, leaving its opposite side entirely unprotected.

The side the rest of the team was poised to attack.

The branch where I struck with all my force peeled off the trunk with a disgusting schlurp.

Pavel launched a backup weapon, the spearhead sinking directly into the heart of the tree.

Romie fired three shots of flaming arrows dipped in pitch in rapid succession, quickly bottoming out their mana pool as each arrow split into three itself. The rain of nine fire arrows thunked into the trunk in a beautiful staccato of death.

The monster tried to whip its limbs around to grab the arrows, which was my cue to dash in and strike the same branch attachment I failed to break earlier.

This time, I was able to cleave cleanly through when I activated my armor-piercing enchantment as the stick was stretched to its limit.

With two of its major limbs down, it couldn't get to the arrows in time and died an agonizing death, grabbing with more and more urgency but less and less strength at the remaining blazing projectiles lodged firmly in its trunk.

As the last stick fell silent, a surprisingly wet thwap indicating our victory, we took stock and reflected. Inara gave us a six out of ten overall.

Fair but it wasn't a great rift for us in general.

Romie swiped the reward distortion, two small bits of gold falling out.

At the collective groan, I asked, "That's three shitty rewards on our delves in a row. That's a pattern. The rifts don't seem that full. Think something could be up?"

"Maybe but just how do we prove it?" Inara asked testily.

I turned to our archer. "Romie, do you have that measuring equipment Ratmir gave you? Can you guys hang back here as people leave and see if the rift is actually as full as they claimed?"

As we exited the rift, I prepared to try to explain the team staying behind but no one batted an eye.

Either there's nothing amiss, these people aren't in on it, or no one expects us to figure it out.

Our guide Natalia was holding the sword and the extremely heavy metal ingot we'd gotten on our first traveling day to Chazin Mark. She'd helpfully offered to take them into town for an appraisal while we cleared the rift.

Natalia snapped a salute to Inara. "Sword can accept a bit of essence to get stronger. Though unfortunately, it's highly unlikely to Tier up to Tier 2. Has some really fun enchantments on it like a lengthening one and one that makes it all whippy!" She demonstrated, sporting a wide grin, as the sword extended out to five feet (1.6m) then melted to the ground like it was rubber before returning to its natural state.

Inara took the blade with a mischievous grin.

"And the metal is less fun but still valuable! It's Essence-Enriched Iridium. Great for some cool electronics stuff though less use in weapons. See," she said as she sunk her thumb in about an inch. At Inara's indignant squeak, Natalia looked horrified. "Oh no, sorry! It doesn't hurt the value, I promise!"

Pavel cut in before Inara could say anything to our chipper guide. "So how much did it come out to?"

"Oh yeah! The appraiser really liked playing with the sword! Or at least watching me play with the sword. She said she'd give you 25 gold for the sword and fifteen gold for the ingot. Has buyers lined up if you want them!"

Our silent AAI conversation agreed to keep the sword and sell the metal. "Where do we sell?" Romie asked.

Natalia gave directions to the appraiser and my three teammates pretended to want to rest before heading back to sell off the ingot. The happy woman smiled and thanked them for doing so well on the delves.

Pal, the grumpy man tagging along to measure the rifts before and after our delves, was extra surly this morning. "If we are all done being friends, can we actually do our jobs? Let's go."

He started trudging towards my first carried rift of the day with Natalia and I quickly following after.

***

"I don't see why he gets half the value. Didn't do a god damn thing. Utter horse shit," the man from the clear team said, purposefully loud enough for me to hear as he handed over an urn to Natalia. We were exiting the second rift of the day.

At the reward drop, the team all looked excited until they were reminded of the split, after which they started grumbling and grousing. One even told me I should drop my claim on it entirely as I 'got free essence'.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #59: Know what you're worth, get paid what you're worth. Others can complain that you are getting more than your fair share but it's not up to you to set yourself on fire to keep others warm. Especially if they are already well-compensated, that's just setting yourself on fire to let them roast their marshmallows for smores.

The rift – a rather standard one featuring mid-sized quadrupeds that looked like an angry quokka mixed with a dachshund, just far larger – was known for being exceptionally easy.

That difficulty level was not as evident as I would have liked, the clear team handling the enemies at best moderately well.

I was back to being concerned about team quality.

Looks like I am back to heavy screening again.

As we headed to the third rift for the day, I asked Natalia about why the delvers were grumbling about the split. It felt rather strange to me since they knew about it beforehand.

"Well, I heard they let some of the rifts build up a bit too much and that's why you're here, right?! So, good rewards are going to be something people really want. Good windfall, ya know? When those good rewards drop… it's hard to just hand the money over to someone who stood there. Don't you agree?" She seemed too happy about the situation for my taste.

"Yes and no. They couldn't delve these rifts without me. It's like saying they are upset they don't get to eat the entire cake at a party I invited them to. They would be getting zero cake without me. Yes, it's human nature but still, they should be a bit more professional. One just straight up asked me to give up my share."

"Well, that would be silly!" she said as if that settled it.

Every single one of those people were higher sub-Tiers than me – though many seemed to be, at best, mildly competent fighters – so if they were actually threatening me, it was a significant problem.

[Incoming Message from Romie Serva: You were right. Inara wants me to say 'for once'. Essence below expected level. Heading to second rift to measure. Fishy.]

[Incoming Message from Inara Maric: Did Romie say 'for once' like they were supposed to? If they didn't… Oh yeah, and someone is fucking with us, huh?]

[How much below the expected level?] I replied to both.

Inara sent back three pictures, one with her shoulders down, the next with them up, then the first picture again.

Pretty decent shrug. Still a little clunky to interpret. I think I need to introduce gifs here. I can hopefully head off the pronunciation battle with the monsters that pronounce it gif.

Romie was far more helpful. [About 15-20% below expectations. Hard to know exactly. Will send next readings. Good delving.]

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