This time he seemed a bit more prepared for Bella's abrasiveness. His face barely budged, apart from his smile lessening with each word that came out of the Trayven's mouth. Now, he seemed more neutral than formally happy. Now, his feelings were transparent. "Smarter than the average bear then," he suddenly quipped, a far cry from the gentle fatherly tone from earlier, "you got me. But allow me to let [i]you[/i] in on a little secret. Mines eventually run dry. That big mountain you're tapping, or whatever rock you choose to rip next, will eventually be out of shiny stones. Conquering? Sure, you can always stick to plundering and pillaging. It's what you people do best, isn't it?" Whoa. That was different. "Risky business though. One day, just when you think you're safe and there's no way it could go wrong, you bite the wrong string and get yanked. There is always a bigger fish out there, no matter what. But you wanna know what's reliable? Making profit off of things that don't change. Things like the Dojo. A place where there's always gonna be people like you conquering and killing as they please. So someone like me comes along, asking them if they wanna play Barbie with dolls named "civility" and "humaneness". Alternative methods. They bite, and suddenly I'm making profit off of everything this [i]cesspool[/i] is dedicated to." He was seething through gritted teeth now. Mason, who was just a gentle soul from before, had gone full-out prejudiced. "I'm talking about controlling the entire [i]pond[/i] here. Every fish that swims, shits, or eats in it pays me. And it'll always be that way because I offered a trinket that wasn't a gun or a bomb. So lemme now that you get what type of person I am, let's flip the deal. You get a small share of what we make, along with free access to any chains we build around Tatakai. Factories made to mass-produce cleaning drones could easily be repurposed for weapons... without letting any of your competition know where you're getting your goods from." Complete discretionary arms dealing. He was telling the truth - there were no laws in the Dojo that prohibited things like untraceable ghost guns. Hell, there weren't any laws in the Dojo at all. "Not only that, but you'll have ghost money as well with our small share. A little reserve money could always go a long way when you're backed into the corner. And surely now you understand that the difference between your flashy swords and mines and my cleaning drones is that every time you make coin from spilling blood, I make double cleaning it up. So what I'm offering you is completely untraceable revenue. With access to my other facilities, you could run a monopoly on the mining business on Tatakai. Branch out into services that distribute whatever you dig up as well as mine it. Double profit. But of course, you could only do that with someone like me. Sure, you could try and run with my idea after I gave it to you, but who's saying I haven't already invested before you could?" Was he bluffing? It was impossible to tell. Everything he said made sense, but if he was capable of it all was another question. The distaste lacing his words and carved into his expression hid whatever truth that could hide behind it. It was like a gambler who traded a poker face for raw emotion to hide his hand. "You seem smart enough, Isabella Trayven. After all, you caught me red-handed in trying to cheat you. So I'm going to assume you know very well that even though I'm an old man with a screwed up foot and a very clear view on the Dojo, I could easily make this offer to another group with supplies I need that are secondhand to yours, but useful nonetheless. So, do what you will with [i]my[/i] trade info."