While Luke sipped on melon-flavored water, Sooty poured several items out of her Spatial Feather. Edric remained professional, only assisting to ensure nothing dropped to the floor. His crow finished when every piece of flame, wraith cloth, Mishipeshu scale pelts, the ogre’s mallet, and the Shadow Quiver organized onto the table.
The table closely molded its black stone around the items, keeping them from rolling. Luke decided to keep the mana crystal back, alongside a handful of other items nor would he divulge that he had them. The table’s orb enveloped light through each item, and any remnant dirt or otherwise undesirable material shed onto the table, which it promptly absorbed.
“Quite useful, that orb,” Luke said.
“The Fasa Merchant Group ensures any item that comes through its doors remains of the same quality or higher by the time it leaves once more. This orb is one way we prove that ethos is more than mere words.”
Luke breathed out, “I’ll have to agree there. Think I can get one of those for laundry?”
Edric chortled, “I’m afraid, sir, these are quite difficult to procure. Now, then, may I?” The human man pointed to the items.
“By all means.”
With permission granted, the man closely inspected each item, touching anything only after equipping a different pair of white gloves. His eyes flashed several times with an unknown ability. Luke wondered what class would help in a situation as specific as this.
Maybe it’s a profession like appraiser?
Luke had encountered disparate knowledge when he speed-read through the three books to start searching for his old man. A short list of professions and classes that could help one find a person was included. The appraiser and various other roles were on it.
Edric returned to an upright position, came to the side of the table opposite Luke, and spoke, “Aspirant Luke, these items are of fine quality for tier-less individuals. Your craft materials of scale hides, in particular, are valuable. The real prize, however…” His eyes shifted to the Shadow Quiver, “Is the quiver. This particular sub-type of item is in much higher demand than supply, especially for anything above uncommon quality. As such, all included, I can say with absolute confidence that the Fasa group can provide you with an immediate offer of nine gold. If it is not to your liking, I would ask that-”
“Did you say nine gold?” Luke’s brain short-wired. For a man who fought to death several times only to acquire under thirty silver in the process, this was a shock to him.
Edric suppressed a smile, “Indeed, Aspirant Luke, I did. Besides the Ogre’s mallet, all these items are in high demand at any time. With the coming surge, every item is at a premium.” Edric gestured to the room around him, “You’ll find citizens have wealth but no means to acquire particular materials themselves. As such, the only supply is what the combat-class citizenry sells, and much of said material is sold between that group, private buyers, or trusted professionals. Not to the public.”
Luke thought it over. Even with Edric’s explanation, the price seemed too good. Unless the monster surge price inflation was far higher than he imagined. Luke tapped a finger on his cheek while tilting his head. Sooty head-butted him, and he stopped doing that.
“Tell me, Edric.” Luke opened his arms before him, “None of these are tier items, and while I understand the Duchy is short of combat classes, these prices still seem too high. Aren’t these lower-level items? Surely, they’re only worth three or four gold?”
Edric called over an attendant, and a young elven woman approached the table beside him. “Ulera, could you please inform Aspirant Luke of the economic situation successful combat classes often find themselves in?”
“Of course, Manager Edric.” The youthful elf with the same uniform turned to Luke, “Aspirant Luke, items competent warriors bring are highly demanded by the Duchy’s burgeoning wealthy elite and military. While items of the lowest quality are indeed plentiful, your lower-level items are all obtained from undead-type monsters, am I correct?”
Luke was startled they sourced it so quickly. Then again, one item was literally called wraith cloth. Accepting that, he no longer found it too surprising. After laying his hands on the chair, he said, “Yes, they mostly are, good eyes.”
The elf curtsied, “Not at all. Undead are considered overly deadly. Rarely do combatants not at the border face them.” She looked at Luke respectfully, “Except for an extreme minority, most attempt to face undead with the support of a full group. Even your wraith cloth is usually only procured in small amounts due to that common constraint.”
It was entirely possible Luke’s sense of combat difficulty was incredibly warped by the Reaver Tomb. But honestly? To him, the wraiths weren’t too difficult. Sooty made short work of them often. If that were taken into account, he could see how they’d be particularly dangerous for all but the most prepared. Or over-leveled.
“I’ll take it the offer of nine gold is a fair price then?” He asked the elf.
The Fasa attendant nervously looked back to Edric. The purveyor nodded.
“The offer is modestly under market rate; in return, we offer immediate payment and a more permanent status to access the Fasa House of Commerce.”
Luke cared little if they made a bit of extra money off him. “Fine then, I accept the offer. More importantly, how am I to receive the information you dig up on Paul Wallace?”
Ulera realized her assistance was no longer required and left to retrieve the necessary gold at Edric’s behest. After she was out of sight, Edric began to answer, “The Fasa House will require a full day to contact our information sources for what we have available. Once the information has been acquired and compiled, a courier will be sent to your place of preference. The process will take three days at the most.”
“If I’m not there when your courier shows up?” Luke asked.
“They are courteous enough to wait several hours before moving on. If they do happen to miss you, you can designate a person they are to leave the package to. If not, they return it to this building for you to come and retrieve at your earliest convenience.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Luke couldn’t bring himself to ask for more. They were doing the information gathering for free, after all. He said, “You can tell the courier to visit the Jolly Cat Inn, where I’ll stay for now, in room 103. Don’t give the information to anyone if I’m not there. I’ll come by if that’s how it plays out.”
Before Edric answered, Ulera returned with the gold. Two burly, but refined men began to gather the items Luke sold. Once they had secured the items, the gold and a more permanent invitation to visit the Fasa House were handed over to Luke. The young man thanked Edric and Ulera and then left in a hurry. That merchant’s house made him feel too out of place.
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Luke enjoyed the sun and faint breeze as he made off to the north gate. He intended to wipe out the dungeon, Orlan’s Beast Divide. He’d stay either until he reached level 25 or he made the place become empty. Whichever came first.
Before that, he decided to spend some of the gold he received. Some medical items, maps, and a skill book relevant to his ability set, if he could find one, were all on the shopping list. As for finding a party, he refused.
Not that he was anti-social, Luke didn’t know who to trust. His class immediately placed him on thin ice. One wrong step, and he’d plunge into deep, unrelenting waters.
Was he wrong to think so? Luke could see supporting evidence all around him. Even with a supposed ‘invitation’ from the Fasa group, they were hiding something. The question for Luke was for whom and why. All sorts of fingers were in this city. Too many for him to get the complete picture, and attempting to do so would increase the danger. He’d put it off for now.
At the end of the day, this was a strength-ruled society with specific rules to prevent total dominance by raw power. The underlying current issue for Luke remained the same. Weakness. In the form of lacking information and sheer power. He pulled what strings he could. The next step was to become valuable enough to earn more.
The Reaver stopped by an alchemy shop and bought the only health potions available, which were the lowest quality. The purchase of seven potions set him back eighty-four silver; he’d buy more, but that was the last stock. He found a slight surprise while he was in: your pure health point stat, meaning what you had without the influence of items or buffs, decided the potency of the health potion you could consume. The alchemist explained a health potion had a thirty-minute cooldown upon consumption, regardless of quality.
There were various other potions, many of them sold out for the coming monster surge. Luke was happy enough that he managed to snag health potions in such a situation. The other types he’d have to go without. At the alchemist’s recommendation, he visited a physician’s office, who partnered with a herbalist.
They’d sold him multiple wrappings of treated Dryad weave bandages. Those bad boys, or girls, snagged thirty silver from him. The herbalist handed him a mashed salve of homeostatic and disinfectant herbs. Her instructions were to apply it before the bandages. When Luke implied it was obvious to do that, she only chuckled. The pair were kind to him, though, and once Luke told them where he was going, they recommended a friend who ran a general store that could sell him the rest of what he’d need.
With their directions, he entered the general store and left with much lighter pockets and a slight sense of confusion. The money parted from him like it was trying to run. After spending seven and a half gold, Luke told the general store owner to shut up for the sake of his pockets. He’d go completely broke if he kept listening.
The owner insisted this or that was still required to be as prepared as possible, and sadly, Luke couldn’t disagree.
But he was too poor!
Still, that amount of money bought him more than enough supplies. A portable sleeping setup, maps for all three dungeons, three spatial bags, which cost the majority of his gold, fire-starting materials, and a costly consumable that repaired all his items once, provided they weren’t broken. There were also a few other small items gathered.
In the end, it was a positive. The store owner taught him a trick farworlders like him learned when they first came to these lands. It turned out you could expand your Inventory space by putting a dimensional bag in your slot. This would ‘add’ those slots to your Inventory.
The limiter was you could only do this with your original ten slots; to expand an already occupied slot, you’d have to ‘unbind’ a bag, which permanently destroyed it. The three bags he procured had six slots by themselves. Larger ones were sold out and too pricey for him to afford anyway. Luke managed to keep all his supplies, including other equipment, weapons, and clothes, in the three bags, with room to spare.
Luke hoped to find a skill book, and he did, but the damn thing cost fifty gold.
Fifty. Gold. Nothing else was more expensive in the entire store.
He admitted it was a great skill, but no matter how useful it was, he couldn’t afford it. To add insult to injury, the owner revealed the cheaper books had sold out weeks ago. This one only remained because most people who needed it would be the same people too poor to buy it.
In order to not be drained to the last copper, Luke ran from the store. A proficient capitalist wasn’t to be trifled with. He came to the north gate as prepared as he reasonably thought he could be. Part of him wanted to go to the library to read up on the records of Orlan's Beast Divide, but he stopped himself.
It was time to take the challenge head-on. He went through a trial far more difficult and made it out alive. He could do this. Sooty, Xera, and Wayfinder would help him where he faltered. The inspection going out was more lax than the one coming in. The gate guards inspected his sigil stone; they scanned Luke with a crystal, and he was clear to go.
Once outside the city walls, the wind buffeted hard against his face. Luke could see endless fields, each cultivated for some herb or food. To the far left of his vision was a large body of water he didn’t know the name of. Luke paced himself well, and after about ten minutes, he found himself at a three-way split in the main road.
Hunter groups rushed past him plenty of times. A steady stream of hunters took the left or right but not the central path. To Luke’s knowledge from the maps, another dungeon was on the left side, one he’d be barred from entry until he was tier 1. As he walked on the right, a terrain split took over on each side of the road. One side became more akin to jungle, the other an arctic patch, with snow falling.
How bizarre. Luke thought.
The strange dichotomy tortured the groups ahead of him. Luke already possessed the opposite resistances of frost and fire. The wear from clashing temperatures lessened as a result but wasn’t negated. He’d count his blessings where he could.
A trail led into the jungle side, with a guard post sticking out over the trees. Luke memorized its relative position and moved on. The road began to deteriorate rapidly after the guard post, then ended a quarter mile later. A rough footpath formed to its side, cutting through the arctic climate, away from its jungle terrain competitor.
Luke traced the way through the snow and arrived, where it came to a dead end. Various hunter groups were in deep discussion around a portal. Many looked nervous, a few excited, and the rest like they were ready to get it over with. When he focused on the portal, a thought popped up in his head.
This was the source of the temperature issue.
The portal split in color, one side light blue, the other orange-red. Aligned with the split was a rapid rush of dry, cooled, or heated, humid air, more extreme than the terrain on his way here. Luke wondered how the other groups held up so casually this close until he saw each had a mage focused on keeping up a transparent barrier.
They’ve got abilities for everything, don’t they? I guess anyone who isn’t in a group with one ran in. I must stick out standing here alone in that case. He thought.
Luke walked toward the portal. As he did so, he took out Whispering Edge and Xera. He’d long ago re-wore his combat equipment. Luke cast Infusion on both swords and didn’t switch Xera to a wand yet, not until he was away from prying eyes.
He paused a moment, ignoring the contrasting winds bashing his face in. Infusion became useable again, and he imbued Sooty and himself. Luke breathed out.
“Back into the abyss, I go.”