Later that same day, Kaden went to buy new clothes. While his attire might have been fine in the forest, it stood out in Corand. The few coins Sidon had given him was a pathetic amount, but it would get him clothes. Still, he needed another source of money than the arena. He had a lot of mana crystals, but he didn’t want to flaunt them yet. He already had one idea, which he was going to start with soon.
The store owner looked at Kaden suspiciously when he walked in, but his opinion changed quickly once he realized Kaden was not a bum and was there with money.
As for the clothes Kaden bought, it was entirely normal basic clothes that wouldn’t stand out in anyway. He dumped the old pants he had taken from Angis in a trashcan just around the corner. As for the wolf skin boots, he put those in his storage pouch.
Once all that was done, Kaden looked for directions to a guard house. He was going to try some bounty hunting. He felt he was pretty good at killing people. As for finding them, that might be a problem, but one had to start somewhere.
The guards that handled first and second layer were stationed in the second. That part of the city was only slightly more wealthy. There were far more stores and other things that Kaden was interested about. He even passed by a small temple of Stefinos. It was a marketplace. Kaden knew of the god of trade, but he counted that god to be just like the rest of them. He was not sure how the matters in temple went. He would not offer a single prayer, but he knew most valuable things could be acquired from the merchant priests so he was willing to pretend piety.
He decided to check it out later. Not far from the market place was the guard house.
Kaden looked at the somewhat fortified building. Apparently the place housed offices that city guards used, but also things like temporary jail and even judges. Basically everything to do with laws was handled there.
He walked in and wondered where possible bounties could be found.
“What are you looking for, kid?” Said a voice behind Kaden suddenly.
“Hmmm”, Kaden turned around. It was a man in an uniform. “I hear there is a list of bounties here. I want to have a look.”
“Hahaha, kid, aren’t you too young for that”, said the man.
“I can kill most people at Channel Opening”, Kaden said to the guard that questioned his abilities. “I also kill dire beasts alone and eat them.”
The man burst in laughter, drawing some attention.
“I’m serious”, Kaden said angrily. “If you aren’t going to help me, I’m going to continue looking.”
“Its just around the corner there”, said the man eventually. “Bounties are for people who are troublesome to deal with. Far be it from me to doubt your ability, but why not try adventuring first?”
“It’s losers job”, Kaden calmly said. “Now show me list of bounties where it doesn’t matter, if the target lives.”
The man looked at Kaden weirdly and then without saying anything more led Kaden to a wall with a list of names on a magic tool. You could easily touch another tool next to it and you could organize and filter the information. Apparently, it could be updated from across the entire empire as it was connected to some kind of information network.
“What an interesting tool”, Kaden muttered as he looked at it curiously. He could not understand how it was made.
“It should be, these are modeled after ideas gained from ancients and the network systems they built for themselves”, said the guard.
Around at this point other people noticed Kaden.
“What is this? Why is the kid looking at the bounty list.”
“I’m not sure, if I should be allowing it, but its not against any rules I can remember. Technically anyone can look at it.”
“The kid is thinking too big and its going to get himself killed. Kick him out.”
Kaden frowned, but he was not going to resist. The information tool had already sent some information directly into his mind. He could remember faces and details. He had also picked only people who were expected to be in the city. They were basically all gangsters with only a few psychopaths among them that worked alone.
“No. Let the kid do what he wants”, said yet another voice calmly.
“What? Why?”
“You know that Sidon guy? This kid fought in the arena against a dire beast and killed it. Unarmed. I watched it.”
Perhaps fighting on Sidon’s arena wasn’t that bad thing. Sidon had mentioned he had attracted attention. Maybe some amount of fame was good. Still, the looks he was getting were of people looking at a freak.
Now that there were no troubles, Kaden absorbed some more information that was available. Some of the targets could be brought back alive for greater profit, but it was not necessary. Only a proof was needed to claim the reward.
Kaden planned that he would fight in the arena and then he would spend some time doing the bounties. Sidon’s arena mostly had activity at evening and night so rest of the day was free.
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While thinking of which target would be easiest, Kaden went out. It was certainly the gangsters. He had already noticed they work during his exploration. They were also the majority of available targets. Choice was easy to make.
Next in line was to check out the market place. That was where his resources were, if he had the money to buy them. He was not sure how thieves worked, so stealing was out of question for the time being. It would be far easier to kill people and take their stuff.
The gangsters he was going after were part of criminal groups that were apparently led by from far higher positions so, it was next to impossible to deal with entirely. Kaden didn’t really even care about that. He just wanted to kill and get resources.
The bounties, even if they carried very little by themselves, would at least yield the reward. Whatever minions he would have to deal with along the way, might amount to something too. While they might not have bounty on them, if they were criminals or working for criminals the laws were generally lax regarding them. Kaden would be able to beat them to pulp and take their stuff as long as he didn’t go too far with it. Killing was openly allowed only once certain conditions were met. This point did make Kaden frown a bit. Fighting someone and then letting them live? Crazy.
As for the market. There were all kinds of things. The stalls and stores he saw were mostly magic related. The food and such were elsewhere. Many things Kaden saw were things he had never seen before. Some things he did know, like cores and cut cores since oftentimes you did not need to waste entire core and it made more sense to lose some of the mana, but keep smaller usable low grade fragments.
Many of the things Kaden did not know about had also a prices that he would have second thoughts paying anyway. Luckily he could look and often even touch. This proved to be good when he found a store selling metals. Finally he could identify what some of the things he had was and its use. He also found a lot more metals he did not know of and could inspect them.
This is where Kaden made his first purchases. He bought some more of Darksteel that was something he had found from Trohin’s lab. It was relatively common metal with good mana conductivity. Often it was used as a base material and was the part where formations were inscribed. The Darksteel cost Kaden quite a few mana crystals, but he felt it was worth it. It was still relatively small portion since Angis had been quite wealthy.
Money was meant to be used. There were things he wanted to craft and now he had enough materials.
He found a lot of interesting things along the way, but there was one place he wanted to see, even if it meant treading on god’s domain. Stefinos’s temple.
Despite his aversion, he stepped inside. It was full of people and luxuriously dressed merchant priests offering their wares. The temple was far more advanced than the rest of the market place outside. It had similar systems in it as the one in the guard house. Uses were much more varied, though. There were even visibly list and graphs showing some numbers. Merchant priests were shouting something about stocks all the time. This was at the middle of the temple and on the sides there were booths where people went in and out.
Kaden went to see one of these booths.
“Come forth, child!” Said a smiling merchant priest that suddenly appeared. “Stefinos accepts your money!”
“As it happens, I’m seeing such a place the first time”, Kaden started. He decied to seem harmless. “I wished to see, if there were something I could buy, but I do not understand how this works.”
“Haha! No problem!” Said the priest still smiling and then he motioned towards the booth. “Come in!”
Kaden decided to enter. He found that just beyond some curtains there booth contained one of those magic tools he saw everywhere.
“I’m not sure of the way trades are dealt with here”, Kaden continued. “Do I have to worship Stefinos somehow to receive service?”
“If you wish to show piety, you may invest into worship!” Said the priest. “The more money invested freely to Lord of Trade, Stefinos, the better trades you shall find! It isn’t necessary, but why deny yourself great monetary gains!”
“I see”, Kaden replied. Looks like worship was not necessary. Perfect!
“If you wish to invest to business oportunities, you may ask me or any of the priesthood for guidance”, continued the priest. “We will only take minor cut of profit margins! If you wish to invest by yourself, you may do so through the trade point here in this room. Be not afraid! All trades are confidential! I maintain this booth here so I will be outside should you require assistance. I also offer extra oportunities for small sum.” The priest smiled and turned out to leave.
“These people are creepy”, Kaden thougth and looked at the tool, trade point.
A window appeared with enormous list of items and numbers. It seemed to connect to every other temple. Even, if the item you bought was not at your local temple, it was supposedly transported to the one you were. How, Kaden did not know.
“Shit, someone really has to know what they are looking for”, Kaden muttered as he viewed through the lists. There was everything. Some was even hidden behind ‘vip’ parts. There was a sum listed, if you wished to buy yourself such status. It was a very large sum!
Still, the vastness of options made sure that, if Kaden had the money or things to trade, he would probably be able to get anything he wanted. He already had the metals he wanted so he ignored those. He noticed there were even books regarding formations being sold. Schematics. Everything. They were costly, though, but Kaden did decide to buy one of the cheaper, basic ones.
The mana crystals he pulled out from his pouch was placed on a complex formation circle that Kaden just could not even begin to understand. It had multiple overlapping layers that seemed to connect in ways that seemed impossible. Yet, as Kaden placed his order for the book and put the crystals on it, the crystals disapeared and soon the said book about formations appeared in front of Kaden. How convenient!
Should he trade item, it might take longer time as item was appraised and then value asigned for it. Minimum value was set for such items by the temple, which was considered extremely fair price, as magic stones. Yet, if you had something the one selling the object wanted, the trade might take longer, but the seller migth accept your item. You could even set your goods only to be sold with certain conditions.
As for the book that Kaden bought, it was about smithing and using formations on your works. This was something that Kaden needed too.
Then he continued to look at the lists. He wanted to see something. Storage tools. The prices were extremely high. Their descriptions included infromation on how talented the crafter was in using spatial mana.
“Spatial mana?” Kaden thought. “What kind of mana is that?”
He did find such a spatial bag, as they were called, that matched his, roughly. Kaden grimaced. He was carrying a treasure. Lot of people would take it from him, even kill him outright, if they noticed it. It was even more crucial hide it now that he knew.
Kaden was done. He walked out, frowning.
“Dear customer, you seem troubled!” Said the smiling merchant priest outside.
“I did not know the extent of what can be bought”, Kaden said. “Things that truly exceed my funds.”
“Haha! No problem!” Said the priest and pulled out some papers. “May I offer you a loan?”
Kaden cursed in his mind and decided to turn back to the merchant priest. If he was ever crazy enough to take loans to buy something like those spatial bags, he would be paying for it for the rest of his life.