When I arrived at the market, strangely enough there were not too many people there… The few people who were there were mostly drinking alcohol and partying… strange… I also did not see any buyers either… Is the exhibit market closed today?
Though by the looks of things they don’t seem to be closed, I still see the entrance to the public still open and everything… Maybe some sort of dwarven holiday or something?
I walked up to the guards by the door and confirmed if the exhibit market was open today or not, and was told that the exhibit market was in fact open and I am free to sell my wares… okay…
I don’t know what to make of it but I’ll take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself… with no one else selling, I just might finally have my lucky break and get my first customer!
I set up my weapons on display, took up my disguise and waited…
30 minutes passed... no one came…
1 hour passed… no one came…
1 hour and a half passed… still no one...
Grrr… someone… anyone… please come through that door!
As though listening to my plea, finally a middle aged man walked through the door. FINALLY! YES!
Even though he is human, the crime of being born human I’ll forgive if he buys something!
Okay… lets not mess this up… be professional… looking at him through [Identify] his level is about a Rank B adventurer… so any sales to him would have an awesome return in both XP and money!
He walks in and takes a look around, I use this opportunity to grab his attention.
“SELLING QUALITY STEEL AND IRON STUFF AT 25% DISCOUNT OF AVERAGE PRICE!” I yelled.
Personally, I want to sell at no discount due to the monopoly. But I really want to avoid a situation where he just leaves and comes back another day…
With my announcement, he finally takes a notice of me and heads right for me...YES!
Despite my fright, I steel myself and pronounce slowly not to stutter…
“Please have a look at my wares” I urged.
The man takes a look and reaches his hand down grabbing a [Steel Sword], then swings it a few times to test. YES!
“Hmm...” muttered the man.
“I’ll take all your [Steel Swords], [Steel Daggers], [Iron Swords] and [Iron Daggers]” the man suddenly announced.
REALLY?!?! Not only is he my first customer he is now one of my favorite customers! Yup, crime of being human forgiven just this once!
“Would you also like the [Iron Axe] or [Iron Spear]?” I slowly questioned not to stutter.
“No need, only the swords and daggers...” the man replied.
I see… well even without that, it is still an awesome sale! I should treat myself to something super delicious to celebrate!
“...but if it possible... could you make 100 [Steel Swords] or [Iron Swords] within 7 days?” the man adds.
Ha? 100? 100 of what? He didn’t say 100 swords did he? Have I misheard? ...Has my desperation finally driven me delusional?
“...can you repeat that?” I muttered.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I said, can you make 100 [Steel Swords] or [Iron Swords]?” the man repeated.
Congratulations Shiro! You’ve officially gone insane! Now you are making imaginary friends that are buying your stuff… Isn’t that swell…
I activate [All-Observing-Eyes] just in case… he is real…
There is no way my delusions can come up with that much detail… so does this mean….
I ACTUALLY GOT AN ORDER FOR 100 SWORDS?!?!?
OMG! God… all those bad things I said about you the other night… I take them back… I didn’t mean it…
My first bulk customer! I am Queen of the world! Muwhahahaha!
No! lets not get ahead of myself and mess this opportunity up like I always do…
First lets think this through… 100 swords in 7 days… That means I need to make about 14 swords per day… that should be doable with my skills as long as I only focus on making them average…
The problem is getting the materials in place… I only get 100 ingots or ores per month for use… But to make 100 swords I need 200. I can get 10 more ingots next week from my quota… but I’ll still be short 90. Which means I would need to purchase them… Which effectively means I would be making 45 swords for free…
But then again, that is still better than nothing…
“I-I can do 100 swords, but I can’t offer a discount since it won’t be my materials. I would also require a 15% downpayment...” I replied slowly not to stutter.
I hope my requirement for market price and downpayment doesn’t scare him off… Of course downpayment is standard practice, but I can’t help but be anxious that he will change his mind at any minute for some reason...
“No problem, lets sign the contract” the man replied.
AWESOME! SUPER AWESOME!
Things are finally looking up again! I wonder if he is some sort of mercenary leader and trying to stock up on weapons… though why only swords? Oh well… who cares… as long as I get paid I am happy!
We signed a contract for the order and he payed me 9 gold coins for the 3 [Steel Daggers], 9 gold coins for the 2 [Steel Swords], 1 gold and 80 silver coins for both [Iron Swords] and 3 gold for the five [Iron Daggers]. Netting me a total of 22 gold and 80 silver coins! I was literally almost shaking holding that much money! And the worst part is knowing I’d have to part with 70% of it, leaving me only with 6 gold and 84 silver coins. Really… No fair!
But that was just the appetizer! Based on market price of 6 gold per [Steel Sword], I was given 90 gold coins for downpayment! My eyes almost jumped out of their sockets!
After that, the middle aged man said his goodbyes and walked away. With him finally gone, I break into a dance and start humming in pure bliss!
When I finish this order, I am going to go get myself some new clothes, and treat myself to the tastiest food I can find and then get a good bath as well! I can’t wait! But first of all I need to finish this order… lets not count my chickens before they hatch…
Sucks to be all of you celebrating and partying… you all missed out on this super large awesome order! I bet ya are all jealous and regretting you didn’t set up shop!
Being a bit naughty, I activate [Hearing Sense] to gauge at their awing reactions…
“poor thing...”
“I feel sorry for her...”
“I know the missy was desperate for an order but that was just too much...”
…
Ha? rather then awe or regret… all the people are murmuring in… pity?
Why are they pitying me? Hmm… could it be…
I see… that is probably why… thinking about it logically… making 100 [Steel Swords] in 1 week is pretty unrealistic… especially for an Intermediate Disciple… and in our guild, breaking a contract has severe punishment. But little do they know that in terms of [Blacksmithing] level, I equal the Grandmaster! Add to it the class skills I got from the Advanced Disciple Gregon and Argon the Steelsmith, plus my super high [PER], something like 100 [Steel Swords] is a piece of cake!
I can only imagine the reactions they’ll have when I finish it! I unconsciously let out an evil grin as I make my way towards the cafeteria.
...
The next day, I withdrew 100 [Iron Ore] and 100 [Coal Ore] as part of my monthly privileges. I also bought another 90 [Iron Ore] and 97 [Coal Ore] at the counter which cost me a total of 85 gold and 20 silver coins. It was painful parting with that much money… but the joy of smelting helped melt that feeling away somewhat. After making the 190 [Steel Ingots], I began making the swords. Initially, most of my swords were pretty much average due to my fast pace. But surely enough, as I became more familiar even with the improved pace, I started seeing some swords get quality scores of 6 or gain bonuses more often. Once the customer tries these, he will never want to go back to inferior dwarf goods! Hehe..,
Like that, a week passed by and on the last day, I finished my commission of 50 [Iron Ingots] rather quickly and proceeded to make the last 10 [Steel Swords].
From making 450 ingots, I completed 9 [Creationist: Ingot Creation] quests and got +17 PER and from making the 100 swords, I completed 10 [Creationist: Weapon Creation] quests and got +14 PER.
The reason why so much more than usual? That is because I finally managed to complete the 10 quests for both ingots and weapons opening up quests with higher rewards:
[Creationist] Ingot Creation II
Produce 50 tier 1 ingots with at least a quality score of 8 and/or
50 tier 2 ingots with at least a quality score of 7 and/or
50 tier 3 ingots with at least a quality score of 6 and/or
50 tier 4 ingots with at least a quality score of 1.
Type: Continuous 5/10
Status: 17/50
Reward: 3 [PER]
[Creationist] Weapon Creation II
Produce 10 tier 1 weapons with at least a quality score of 7 and/or
10 tier 2 weapons with at least a quality score of 6 and/or
10 tier 3 weapons with at least a quality score of 4 and/or
10 tier 4 weapons with at least a quality score of 1.
Type: Continuous 3/10
Status: 1/10
Reward: 3 [PER]
Pretty awesome I would say!
Of course that was not all that I have gained, you don’t just make 100 [Steel Swords] without any benefit...
Level up!
Creationist: +2 to all unlocked attributes +5 MP +5 Mental +2 PER
Once 18 o’clock came, I went to the armory where the swords were temporary stored, and waited for the middle aged man while in my disguise.