Chapter 620 – The Spread of the News

The Beastmanelder Prophet’s disciple had deliberately chosen a Goblin merchant.

Other merchants might have had reservations about spreading the news due to the Dawn Society’s ties to the Witches.

After all, under the impact of the Dawn Society’s resource cards, Valen’s entire commercial model had undergone a tremendous transformation.

Merchants had gone from transporting goods by horse and cart, traveling far and wide to profit from regional price differences, to using Spatial Cards to store merchandise. Some even made their living running trade routes selling cards.

Anyone could see that the Dawn Society had the power to standardize prices across the board, centralizing all transactions involving spellcasters directly into the Dawn Society’s Card Magic system.

But instead, the Dawn Society had set card prices based on the unique resource output of each region, preserving the geographical price differences and leaving room for merchants to earn their profits.

Now they could buy cheap cards at resource-producing regions, load up a Spatial Card with goods worth several times what they used to carry, travel light with much higher security, and still earn no less than before.

Ask them to go back to the old ways? They wouldn’t have it!

This news was clearly disadvantageous to the Witches. If something happened on the Witch side and the Dawn Society was affected, their businesses might take a hit too. Besides, the Witches were not to be trifled with.

The best choice was to pass this news along to the Witches, earn some contribution points, and get access to better resource cards.

Money versus life, short-term gains versus long-term interests — any sensible merchant knew how to weigh the pros and cons.

But Goblins were different. A Goblin merchant’s greed for wealth rivaled a Demon’s hunger for souls or an Angel’s devotion to faith. Moreover, they often disregarded consequences — or rather, were willing to take extreme risks for the chance to earn more money.

The Goblin race had a saying: “For the right price in gold coins, you could get a Goblin merchant to personally deliver his own severed head.”

Gold coins being more important than life was nothing unusual for Goblins.

The Goblin merchant who obtained the news was named Gnome. The moment he got his hands on the information, he contacted every single friend in his Communication Card.

Whether they were Goblin, human,Beastman, vampire, Demon, or anything else, he left no one out.

He told each of them he had a major secret concerning the political situation in Valen, and asked if they wanted to buy it.

The price he quoted was different for each person.

Those with little interest got a cheaper price; those with more interest paid more. He charged an Elf only one Magic Gold Coin, but demanded a Red Gold Coin from a human mage. His pricing was perfectly calibrated, and his total sales were quite gratifying.

Even more cleverly, when dealing with other races, he used coded language or private transaction channels. But when selling to fellow Goblins, he said everything openly right there in the Communication Card.

Straight-up: “The Beastmanelder Prophet Brooks has prophesied that the Fireworks Witch Lady Anita may have perished.”

If the Witches behind the Dawn Society had the ability to trace Communication Card messages back to him, this approach was tantamount to telling the Witches directly that he meant them no harm — he was just an information broker doing it for the money.

If the Witches behind the Dawn Society couldn’t trace it back to him, then he could profit with even fewer scruples.

Even more cunning was this: one minute before revealing the Prophet’s prophecy to anyone else, he had already sold the information cheaply through his Communication Card to a Witch he knew, claiming he’d bought it secondhand from someone else and didn’t know if it was true or false — hence the low price.

That Witch then contacted the Witch Council. The Witch Council found a way to verify the information’s authenticity through Magic, and only then contacted all Witches to issue that warning announcement.

The other Goblins who bought the news operated in exactly the same way as Gnome.

Were they in the wrong? Well, they hadn’t hidden anything from the Witches — in fact, the very first ones they notified were the Witches.

One minute early was still early! That counted as showing respect, right?

Were they in the right? Well, they had recklessly spread information harmful to the Witches, profiting off the safety and security of the entire Witch race.

If this incident had involved any race other than the Witches, there was a very real chance that race would have retaliated against the Goblins for profiteering off the spread of information — even using the Dawn Society as leverage for revenge.

But as it happened, the ones the Goblins had offended were the Witches.

Given the Witches’ nature of being reasonable to an extreme degree, there was a very real possibility they would let the Goblins off the hook.

For instance, right now, Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph were all against making trouble for the Goblins over this.

“The Goblins did spread the news, but they’re Goblins, not Witches. They have no particular ties to us. We can’t expect them to give up profits for the Witches’ sake! After all, to them, money is more important than their own heads,” Sylph said.

“Exactly. The real culprits are the Demons pulling strings behind the scenes. The Beastmanelder Prophet’s disciple was lured by Demons — we should go after them directly,” Vasida said.

“Goblins only care about money — they’re like that with everyone. At least they tipped us off in advance,” Lilith also made her position clear.

They were all inclined to go after only the true masterminds behind the incident and those who had actively taken action against the Witches. There was no need to pursue the Goblins, who had spread the news but had also warned the Witches in the process.

Mo Lan had originally felt that given the Goblins’ behavior of playing both sides in this affair, it didn’t really matter whether they were held accountable or not. But seeing Lilith and the others’ decision, she now felt the matter warranted some follow-up:

“The Goblins acted so brazenly precisely because they calculated that we Witches wouldn’t bother settling scores with them. Once the Dawn Society makes its stance clear, all those who are friendly to us Witches will receive certain discounts on card purchases, while all those who act against our interests will face price increases or even have their access privileges suspended.

“Reward friendliness, punish hostility — rewards and punishments should be proportionate. For this Goblin matter, let’s just follow the friendship rating calculation system I set up. Add points where points are due, deduct points where deductions are warranted. Note the reasons for each adjustment. This way, we make our position clear while also ensuring the Goblins think twice before banking on our leniency in the future.”

The Goblins were too calculating. Letting them exploit the Witches so recklessly couldn’t be allowed to continue.

The friendship rating reward-and-punishment system had been clearly outlined in the 《Dawn Society Future Plan》 that Mo Lan had drafted before establishing the Dawn Society. Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph all knew about it.

Once the friendship rating system was officially launched and the Goblins’ actions were assessed according to its provisions — rewarding and punishing as appropriate — none of them could find anything objectionable about it, and they all expressed their agreement.

“I have to say, now that we’re doing it this way, I suddenly feel a lot better about the whole thing,” Vasida said.