The Mechanical Era

It was another busy day in the mining city of Keliath. The air of the streets, once filled with such fresh clean air, was now mixed with an unhealthy amount of coal and sulfur, produced by the hundreds of chimneys pointed towards the sky, puffing out smog like there was no tomorrow.

From the inside of their corporate headquarters, Horner B Tyler looked onward at the port from afar via his spyglass. He can see that there were more shipments to the DURDIN group, their biggest active rival in the city.

Horner and Tyler both suspected that they were the reason it was founded. Ever since they announced that they had managed to get a contract from the royal family themselves, it scared the previously squabbling miner owners to join up together, find a merchant, and find the DURDIN group.

From there, they took out a few loans from the banks in the city of Hoverdam and a few investors to get the manpower and equipment needed to fund their new operation. From the looks of it, it had worked, considering they had attracted the attention of the palace, granting them a contract.

"What do you think is in those boxes? Any Guess?" Tyler Miller asks Horner, who is right next to him, looking out of the window. Horner takes a while to examine the boxes themselves and where they were headed before he answered. He was conducting a form of espionage against his rivals.

"From the looks and shapes of it. a few more conveyer belts, drills, pumps, and a bunch of other stuff. These fuckers are coming up too fast," Horner commented, feeling irritated that they were getting their stuff BEFORE the TIC is.

"I guess this was how they felt about us, didn't they?" Tyler replied. Horner chuckles a little and turns to face Tyler.

"I guess so," he replies before concentrating on the shipment again.

"Any luck on expanding towards the south?" Horner questions Tyler as he watches them. Tyler thinks about it for a minute as well, before replying.

"I had a few contractors lined up who were willing to take up some of our extra iron, but..."

"But what?"

"Well... you can say that the DURDIN group appears to have a few more powerful allies than we could have expected. They had managed to get ahold of them and sell them off before we could."

"Darn... well, is there anyone else you think we can sell off our iron to?"

"There are three more cities, and I am trying hard as I can to get a hold of them before the DURDIN group does. Considering that they come from an area where the demonic wave has shown up, I bet to think that they will be willing to pay a higher price."

Just then, as the men were watching. There was a knock on the door. After giving their consent, a messenger enters the room, carrying an envelope to deliver to the two men. He hands them over the envelope, gets a tip in return, and leaves to deliver other messages.

Tyler, being the one who was given the message, opened up the envelope and read the letter inside. As he silently read out its contents, he makes a smile. He then turns to Horner and hands them.

"Greetings Mr. Horner B Tyler & Mr. Tyler Miller,

We are pleased to inform you that we have received the adequate amount of iron as stated in our previous contract of 25 tons of iron, split into 7 days this week, for now. You have been able to satisfy our requests, and we thank you for that.

The Government of Hoverdam had examined and acknowledged that your company, which you both started very recently, can produce a large number of materials, and scale up production when the opportunity arises.

As a result, the government of Hoverdam has decided to continue conducting business with your company, to introduce another, more long-term contract that we hope to place into effect this month.

We will be sending a government agent to discuss business with you. He is expected to arrive on the morning of the 18th of Nativitas, at the port.

He will ask you both questions about your corporation that would allow us to make a proper long-term contract that we can initiate. You both will be allowed to read the contract and make any essential changes you think is necessary.

We hope to receive word back from you both soon!

Sincerely,

Minister Alan 'Walker' Fleck"

As Horner finishes reading the letter, he places it down on the table and looks at Tyler. The men were both smiling at each other, upon hearing the news.

"Well, it looks like you were right after all! His majesty chose us because we can scale up production quickly. Though, considering that DURDIN also might have got a letter, we will need to be quick," Horner remarks.

"Oh, don't worry about the preparations. I will handle it. I already have prepared a plan in place just in case this might have happened."

"You did? Since when?"

"Since we got the letter. We both knew it was short-term, and I had some free time. So I did. The only question is, will you be able to make a report in..." Tyler looks at the calendar hanging on the wall.

"... 3 days?" Tyler asks.

"Oh, I don't think that is necessary. I already received the report. It is in my briefcase," Horner replied.

"Oh! You do? Well, can I see it?" Tyler asks.

"Sure. Just one minute." He walked up to the other end of the table, which had his black leather briefcase. He push open the locks and opened them up. Inside the briefcase, contained a stack of documents separated into files, waiting to be read.

Horner skims through the files to find the file that he needs. Once he finds it, he makes sure that it was the correct file before walking back to Tyler.

"From what is written here, currently we managed to produce about 25 tons of iron last week thanks to the additions of the new equipment we bought from the funds.

However, as they are getting more experience after working with the machines, we might be able to produce 40 tons of iron this week, and 65 tons by next week, with our current equipment."

"So? 65 tons a week then?" Tyler asked while raising his hand to grab the file.

"No. Though we may be producing more iron, we are still waiting for the rest of the equipment to employ in our mining operation.

Though I am not sure why they are taking so long, they should be on the 17th of this month, two days from now. Considering that it will take us about 3 more days to employ, the number could be drastically higher.

From my estimates, If we manage to get it up and running by this week, we might be able to produce 85 tons of iron next week, and 140 tons a week after! Keep in mind, these are just figures, and the number could be lower or higher in reality."

Horner then hands the papers to Tyler, who examines them closely. On the paper itself, was a neat table drawn with a pencil, presenting all the information that they needed.

"Hmm! Wonderful. Well, just make sure to keep that file safe. While I get the preparations ready."

"Alright then. Hey, should I continue on them or..." Horner asks while pointing at the window.

"I don't it will be necessary," Tyler replied.