As he arrived at the caravan, he saw several red priests loitering around the coach's staging area. They were trying to look inconspicuous, but the red priests would only be here if they wanted something from your carriage or were about to leave on a mission.
Chronos called out, "If you are here for the auction, I'll have to ask you to wait for the others to arrive first. It wouldn't be fair to start without them."
There was some grumbling from the ones who thought they could get the mead for cheap, but they couldn't do anything about it.
While waiting Chronos opened the rear of the carriage and decided to tap one of the barrels to serve as a quality test. He stacked the barrels off to the side with the one to be tapped on the back of the carriage.
"I hope I'm not too late for the auction." Came a booming voice from a large fat man in red robes.
"You aren't, I just finished setting up."
Chronos heard several priests complain. Apparently, the fat man was a high priest who was well known for his ability to drink and willingness to spend copious amounts of gild on good beer.
A sly smile crossed his face as he tapped the barrel.
"Good sir, I see that you are a high priest. Could I impose upon you to taste test this mead to confirm its high quality?" He said as he filled a small drinking mug to offer him.
A smile appeared on the priest's face, "Gladly, how old is this vintage?"
"It's marked for two years ago but the honey used in it was provided by a unique type of bee. I had a chance to sample some in a village a few days north of here and it was delicious. Though I don't think it can qualify as excellent, that may be due to its short ageing time."
Taking the mug, he smelled the drink first, "Oh that is a pleasant floral scent not too strong and well balanced." He then proceeded to taste the mead. "Hmm it has a rich honey flavor to it, perhaps slightly too strong, but it is not sticky. I believe it has just recently entered the semi-sweet type of mead. How much do you want for the tapped one?"
"Oi, don't try to cut the line we want to bid too."
"Yeah, you can't use your position to buy one."
"Bid like the rest of us."
"Now all of you calm down. We'll start the bidding with the open barrel for just 50 gild the unopened ones will start at double that."
The price was very cheap for a full barrel but there were only five barrels. With a couple dozen priests already gathered the price would rise swiftly.
Sure enough, in the first few minutes the price had almost tripled before it slowed down.
"130"
"140"
"170" Came the voice of the high priest for the first time as he tried to gain the tapped barrel.
"We've got 170 from the high priest, is anyone going to bid more?"
"175" A voice from the back called out.
"190" The high priest bid again.
The other priests hesitated at the sudden price jumps before deciding not to bid.
"With that the first barrel goes to the high priest. Congratulations on your winning bid." Chronos said as he handed over the tapped barrel while whispering, "You tripled the price almost on your own, did you have to bid so strongly for the first one?"
The high priest muttered "I got the cheap one and I'm sure some of the others will offer me drinks for favors once I'm done with this barrel. It's a good win for me."
Chuckling Chronos started the next bidding war, "The next barrel starts at 100 gild now who would like to open the bid."
"100"
"105"
"110"
.....
After auctioning off all of the mead Chronos' total income was 1323 gild. He had been right, each barrel other than the first went for more than double the starting bid. The last one even tripled its cost.
It had been a profitable morning.
What had really surprised him was a green cleric coming in at the end to win the final bid. In the future he would have to spread the message to all of the towers. That way those who wanted it would force the price up in a serious bidding war.
As he approached the training grounds, he could hear Commander Stans' voice shouting at his men.
"Raise your guards and keep your enhancements up. The enemy will attack relentlessly, if you are found lacking then you will die. Even if you have to fight for hours there should be no difference in your aura between the start of the fight and its end."
Chronos found Captain near the entrance listening to him shout. His mercenary company was with him waiting to enter.
"Hello, he isn't trying to hide the fact that a big battle is coming with those orders."
"Good, that means he'll be more open to training a bunch of mercenaries. You men wait here; I'll call you when we receive permission."
"Yes, sir."
Entering the gate, they saw Commander Stan pacing in front of the paladins as they did their best to maintain their enhancements.
Approaching him Captain spoke up, "Adam could we talk to you for a moment?"
"Sure, Vice-Commander, I leave these men in your hands."
The men sighed in relief until they realized the second vice-commander had stepped forward. He was even stricter than the commander.
"What can I help you two with?"
Chronos thought about the best way to phrase this request before deciding to just go for it.
"We request training for the caravan guards. It doesn't need to include anything secret to the paladin order but even some good basic training would boost their chance of survival in the coming weeks."
The commander's face grew stern as he heard this.
"You know what's coming?"
"No, but if the battle priests of the Tri-Goddess temple are going to be here then any help my men can get will be appreciated." Captain answered him.
"Right, we didn't keep that secret." He muttered before responding, "I don't have a lot of time to train them and neither do my men. We'll give you any training we can but don't expect too much. Also, there are no secret methods in my order, we teach everything to anyone willing to learn."
"Isn't that a bit risky?" Chronos asked.
"Nope, even if we teach you everything, most of our techniques require some sort of connection to a dragon. Unless you were born with dragon's blood or worship the dragon gods you won't be able to use our techniques." He said with a proud smile on his face. "What are the current ranks amongst your men?"
Captain differed to Chronos who was more familiar with the ranks and mastery levels.
"Me, Gregory, Jeffery, and Mike are at the peak of the second rank. Me and Gregory both have advanced mastery of our weapons while Jeffery and Mike are at intermediate mastery. Captain is in the third rank and will be at advanced mastery once he acquires a zweihander.
Most of the other men will advance to the second rank with a few more days of training. All of them will need larger blades as their aura method was made for a zweihander."
Thinking about this report Commander Adam looked mildly impressed.
"That is better than I thought. Most small mercenary companies are only in the first rank but if they are all ready for advancement your group must be fairly strong."
"I focused on training a small group from the beginning. I'm a firm believer that quality is better than quantity." Captain responded.
"Good, call your men in and I will see if we can speed up their advancement."
"Yes, sir."
Chronos and Captain went back to the gate to call the others; Gregory was there as well.
"How did it go?" Chronos whispered.
"I found some but it's mostly legends from a thousand years ago or more. We can talk later."
Nodding they joined the company going inside.
Everyone lined up in two lines while the third vice-commander brought and passed out larger swords.
"I will be your teacher for today and have been informed that you men are trained in the use of long swords and claymores. Now I want to see how skilled you are. The back line will pair up with the man in front of you to spar. Do not hold back, these training grounds are warded to prevent death, but you will feel pain from this. Show me what you can do, and I will teach you from there."
This was the first of several long days of training that the company would both hate and love at the same time. By the time the training will come to an end all of them would be in the soldier rank and Captain would achieve advanced mastery.
This would lead their mercenary company to become one of the most famous companies in the Leighla kingdom and the surrounding nations.