"Yeah… Wait, spies? Isn't that bad?"

"Not really."

While Dax was lazily overlooking the capital city of the As'li together with Sami and Mirza from a cafe on top of a two story building, Dax kept up a relaxed att.i.tude as he was keenly aware he was being watched. With the syndicate he was now leading having seen a production increase of drugs almost 10 fold over the last 2 months while their compet.i.tors were being eliminated, Dax figured it would be strange if various organizations weren't keeping an eye on him at this point in time. With an increase in interest from the rest of the Empire's criminal underworld centred on the As'li lands, the lone oasis city had seen a strong uptick in visitors that Dax and his subordinates were dealing with according to plan. Of course, Dax was the only one that had any knowledge about that plan, so to Sami and Mirza which were his direct subordinates, things seemed a bit hectic.

"Is it really fine that so many factions are snooping around?"

"Yeah it's completely fine, it's not like they're going to figure out how the output of this area has suddenly increased."

"Right… I don't even have an idea of how you did that."

Even Mirza who was the head of the drug production had any idea how Dax increased production even after seeing it for himself, apparently cutting the raw product with synthetic reagents refined in ma.s.s and s.h.i.+pped in from the central kingdom was a new and hardly understood concept.

"How is your operation going Sami?"

"... Like you instructed, I have been offering generous loans to our compet.i.tors affected by the recent s.h.i.+ft in market supply. More of them that than expected have taken the money offered but I fear we won't be making any profit on the venture."

"That's fine. Making money is not the focus of that venture, keep up normal operations, that should secure the needed capital to continue."

"Bu-"

"No buts, just worry about making the ventures run without issues, I'll worry about how it all fits together on the grand scale."

Showing a large smile to Mirza and Sami, Dax silently pressured the sibling pair so much that they started flinching.

"... Understood boss."

"Understood."

"Good~ Then that's this meeting over, return to your operations."

Seeing off the siblings, Dax ordered some food which he enjoyed at a lax pace while continuing to manage his fletching criminal empire.

(Next s.h.i.+pment is on time but demand is growing a few more per cent than expected… I guess I need to add an extra ton of supplies to the next delivery.)

Keeping a tiny bit of his attention on the entire city trough his drone surveillance network while he continued to handle normal operations, Dax spotted a new group of outsiders that were different from the other.

(Why h.e.l.lo there~ Slower than expected, but it's great to see we're finally gaining some real attention. ICI notify everyone, it is time for some networking.)

(DIRECTIVE UNDERSTOOD, NEW CONFIRMED HOSTILES WITHIN THE WIRE, TRACKING 12 NEW CONTACTS OF INTEREST.)

---

As the blazing sun slowly started to dip below the horizon, the oasis city of the As'li slowly started getting more active. With outrageously warm days and chillingly cold nights, the twilight of the evening and early morning proved to be the most hospitable for activity, especially for outsiders that were not used to the extreme desert environment.

"Report."

"Yes, boss. It seems like there's only a single criminal element in this city, they lend out money and sell a few different compounds."

Having made her way to the oasis city following a lead, Lia, the blind beastkin 'cleaner' and her subordinates quickly identified the local elements.

"How are they doing?"

"Good, almost too good in fact. Unlike all the other players they seem unaffected by the recent bad weather."

With drug production and distribution being hit throughout the Empire, the very fact that one organization was not having issues was enough to make them a target, even if they had nothing to do with the recent events.

"... They are definitely involved with the recent attacks. Go rough up one of their lenders, that should get the attention of someone higher up in the food chain."

"Yes, boss."

As she had given the order, Lia remained at the hotel room in the middle of the oasis city with only a few subordinates as the rest of them went to 'introduce themselves'. Following along with her subordinates by using her extremely keen hearing, everything seemed to be fine until they were suddenly taken out in the middle of a busy street. Drawing her short sword without a word, the rest of Lia's remaining subordinates immediately understood that there was something wrong.

"What's happening?"

"They were taken out, I have no idea how."

"What? Ho-"

"Shh."

Shus.h.i.+ng her subordinate mid sentence, Lia picked up the faint sound of someone closing in on their room, the person in question walked right up to the door and then stopped in place.

"h.e.l.lo, room service!"

With that brazen announcement, the door into Lia and her subordinate's room was kicked in and time slowed down for her. With the sound of the door flying off its hinges, Lia challenged mana into her shortsword before slicing the door which was flying towards her in two, taking a sharp breath at the same time as she stepped forward and threw out a hastily formed offensive spell towards the invader.

(What!?)

But to Lia's surprise, the attacker completely ignored the blade of air she had sent towards him as he charged forward into the room while remaining unaffected, striking one of her subordinates before she could adjust.

"Gha!-"

Hearing the sound of air and blood being expelled out from his lungs, Lia immediately judged the strike as a fatal one as she moved into range, taking a sharp breath as she drove her sword through her subordinate in an attempt to strike the attacker.

"Woah! That's f.u.c.king cold lady!"

Avoiding the strike by breaking his stance, the attacker left himself open to Lia as she caved through the copse of her subordinate and continued her a.s.sault, using her momentum and shorter frame to her advantage as she stepped into range with a downwards strike that aimed to cleave the attacker in two.

"Oh, no you don't."

But to Lia's surprise, the a.s.sailant caught the blade with his bare hand as he pressed forward, forcing Lia to abandon her sword as she challenged mana into her body and invoked strengthening magic. Taking the ground which was offered to him, the attacker threw Lia's sword at one of her subordinates, hitting him in the head and killing him instantly as he continued towards his pursuit of Lia. Feeling the urgent need to regain momentum, Lia parried a right jab as she suddenly stepped into her attacker's range, ducking under his left punch and continuing into his bosom as he retreated before she shot out an uppercut aiming to take the head of her attacker clean off. Sadly, the attack failed to land and in launching it she left herself open. Seeing the opportunity present itself, Dax didn't hesitate to take advantage of it. Gripping the outstretched arm, Dax lifted the beastkin off the ground as and took away her ability to put any energy into her strikes while he sank a knee into her stomach.

"Khu!-"

As the beastkin puked a good amount of blood, Dax increased his gripping strength on her arm, feeling her ulna bone crack as he swung her around and threw her into a wall. 

"Callout from command, all hostiles neutralized. Bring in the saviours."

-

"Good morning people, while some of you might have been in a situation that looks like this before, but I personally a.s.sure you, this isn't like that."

Deep underground in the sandstone caves below the oasis city, Dax had collected the different operatives which had come after him the last few days and chained them up. Addressing the crowd with their heads covered by cloth sacks, Dax judged the different reactions as he continued talking.

"My name is Dax, I am the leader of this local operation. While I don't know the name of any of you people, I am aware of who you all are working for, various operations throughout the Empire has been hit over the last few weeks coinciding with our increase in output, believing that to be too much of a coincidence they send you to investigate or send a message. While the normal thing for me to do in such a situation would be to brutally torture and kill all of you before sending parts of you back to your superiors to send a message, that's not what I'm going to do."

About to continue, Dax was interrupted when one of the chained up people started laughing.

"Hahah aha! You really have no idea who you're f.u.c.king with, huh!? You and your friends are dead when my people discover what you did to me, do you hear!?"

"Ah, Hans… I kinda forgot that you were here still."

Being distracted mid monologue by one of his prisoners, Dax breathed a deep sigh before he walked over to the man laughing

"Now if you free me from here immediately, and get me some women and booze I might let you live!"

"Right, sorry about that. This offer I'm making does not extend to you. I don't deal with an organization which uses slaves and people as a disposable resource so I've taken the liberty of crus.h.i.+ng your organization in its entirety, Terra please take out the trash."

With the sounds of confusion, anger and eventual panicked screaming Dax finally found himself free of distractions and continued speaking.

"Now, the organization I lead might or might be responsible for some of those things, but in any event, we're prepared to compensate all of you for your losses."

Letting that sentence sink in for a moment, Dax walked over next to one of the chained up people and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"So go back to your leaders with this message and see what they want, if they want to cooperate great, if not, then that's just too bad."

Handing the first person a pouch filled to the brim with gold coins, Dax removed his restraints and pointed towards the door.

"That way, talk to you soon."

Continuing on Dax eventually reached a certain black haired beastkin woman.

"Do you honestly believe that I'm going to fall for this?"

"Yeah, I am Lia. If your people like money, which I know they do, we will be working together in the future."

Patting Lia's head as he had a bright smile on his face, Dax made the hardcore cleaner flinch. 

"H-how do you know who I am?"

"Why do you a.s.sume I don't? Go back to your boss and talk to him, I bet Mr Randall of the Empire's moderate faction will love to work with me. Talk to him and we'll set up some appointment to do some networking."