"Im sure you have noticed the prices on most of the finished goods. Do you have any idea on how much the materials are going for?" Enquired Hepht. Tinkerson indicated he didn't. "Materials that are sold by epics is normally sold to us by one of two ways. Barter for some other materials or in coinage. I imagine you haven't got any coinage?" Tinkerson confirmed he hadn't. Hept nodded and then gave him directions to a shop in the rows that dealt in mundane coinage. He also gave a bit of advice in the best types to get. some were worth more then others, some were trusted more then others. "With that out of the way, tell me, have you noticed the bit of space in the portal room along side the wall with some people sitting there?" Tinkerson confirmed that he had. "These are students like yourself. They will often buy from people coming straight out of the portals and sell some of the common consumables, enabling a quick turnaround for the team or person that is selling. If someone was to deal regularly there, and build up some trust, it possible they could make contacts. Contacts that would be willing to source particular materials." Tinkerson mind worked furiously at this.

"Are those along there allowed to sell finished equipment?" Hepht nodded to this. "Why don't you have people there?"

"Only academy students are allowed to set up there. It a way to give those who manage to work or find this out, a leg up. I would advise in exchanging three demis worth of power for coinage. This would give you enough coinage to buy a plentiful supply of basic to heroic levels of materials. Possibly a few legendary, although I would expect them to use barter more for that. Epics, I doubt they will come to you about unless you have gained complete trust of the team." Tinkerson nodded to this. They spoke for a few hours more, mostly on prices and such for different materials although Hepht was impressed by the scale of Tinkerson's knowledge and assumed that Tinkerson was strictly on a merchant path. Tinkerson did not disabuse him of this notion. He then wandered back to the portal room where he saw Jesary on duty. Pausing by him, he asked.

"Is there a rule book for merchants?" Jesary reached back and pulled out a book and gave it to Tinkerson with a smile.

"I won on that one. I changed my bet on this after speaking to you last time. Is there anything else i can help you with?" Tinkerson found himself thinking on how Jesary had phrased this.

"Are there any more books you could give me?" Jesary grinned broadly at this and reached behind him and gave him five more books. It seemed that he had won again on Tinkerson. Tinkerson then went on through the portal back to the academy. Heading back to his room, he then researched the books he been given. As well as rules for merchant, there were rules for people fighting in the arena, rules for people selling in the rows, a book that concentrated on agreements, a book for setting up a faction and a book on dealing with epics. Tinkerson then proceeded to read all of them. He then went and ate, and went to bed.

Tinkerson awoke with knowledge that he had read the evening before fitting together. Everything was interconnected in the city of the demigods. The sooner you worked this out or found this out, you could work at using it to your advantage. This was the first hurdle of these 25 years. The later you found this out, the more likely you were not to gain power. A demigod needed power in order to move forward. He understood now, that the city of demigods was likely a city made of demigods that had never made it past this point. What happened then, Tinkerson was unsure of. One thing he was sure of, he wasn't going to find out the hard way.

He then went and looked for Kekemozz. He knocked on his door and when Kekemozz answered the door, requested they adjourned to the meeting room. Once there, they settled in and Tinkerson begain to speak. He explained all he had found out so far. How he determined how it all fit together. That he had worked out a path through it all. However he was hoping that Kekemozz could guide him on how to shore up a weakness he had. That of working with others. Kekemozz listened through all of this, and then spoke himself.

"Two months. You have worked out in two months what was supposed to take you roughly three years to work out. I am damned impressed. I am not allowed to help you with any of this, but advice on how to help solve a problem that concerns your own personal self? This is what I am allowed to do. Oh before we get into that, take this." So saying, Kekemozz held out a marble. Tinkerson took it and absorbed it and handed it back. 70 demis of power. Which meant he now had 100 demis. He started at Kekemozz. "That is what is awarded to students who meet criteria. I imagine you will get something additonal for having smashed the time allocated by the academy for doing so, but that will be rewarded by the board. It out of my hands." So saying, Kekemozz moved onto the topic of working with others.

"This was a weakness I noticed in your original build. However, this is the one path that we are not allowed to assist on, unless asked for. The path of power. Not of strength, but political. If you follow this in any way, you will most likely end up playing the game of the gods. How deeply, is up to you. Just remember, greats gains can be made, everything can be lost. So you now ask, how can I work with others? It is actually a cornerstone of reaching the highest heights. If Gods did not manage to work together for the most part, the universe would have died from the wars waged. Fortunately, your Knowledge of the land includes knowing whose land you are on, which can be an advantage in at least knowing who you will be ultimately dealing with." Kekemozz looked Tinkerson in the eye. "You will never be part of a pantheon. With your eventual goal, you will not have equals for a while I suspect, as nobody will think to achieve it, until you do. However, I do recommend you set up a faction. I am in fact, the head of a faction. Under me, I have people who seek out new knowledge for me and confirm whisperings of it. A knowledge faction. However, it is a lot smaller then others, as I mostly use it to cover knowledge concerning the academy. You need to start thinking of what sort of faction you want to start. In the meantime, I will give you a list of books to read. With your intent, you should learn what you need to learn. If you do not, I would surmise you will fail your end goal."

Tinkerson took the list and trudged off to his rooms and the library in a state of shock. He had been a loner by nature. While he had enjoyed the company of his workmates and some close friends, in general he tended to stick to himself. Now, in order to complete his goal he was expected to be able to in charge of faction of people and direct them. The skills he needed for this were not skills that would come naturally to him. Which meant, he was going to have to figure out a way forward through this minefield. He sat down in the library and scanned the list he was given. One struck his eye. It was a memoir of a man who had worked in service of a god, eventually becoming an epic. Due to the nature of his work, he often had to interact with others. However the man was a lot like him. He was not a natural leader. Yet he had risen in power based on being a leader for his god. How had he achieved this? He figured this would be a good place to start. It took him four days to go through it. Once he had, he thought about what he had read. Not all the pieces were fitting together, although he had a better grasp of how. So he scanned the list again. Found a book compromising of how a group of people who had worked together during their epic years had then parlayed into a faction rather then a pantheon as was usual for a group of epics working together. He read that one in 2 days and it made more of the pieces in his mind fit together. He decided now that he had a barebones framework in his mind, to read through the list and also read a couple of books that were linked to the first couple he read. One that explained how the man who had became an epic through his leadership had not chosen to become a demigod. Part of this was about his experiences as a leader. The other detailed different power structures that were found throughout the universe. After finishing all of these, he went to sleep.

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When he woke up, he sat up in bed and pulled up his status.

Name: Tinkerson Race: Demigod

Racial Traits: Universal language, Improved Phyiscal and Mental abilities.

Unique Traits: Dimensional Affinity, Soulforged, Champion

Alignment - Neutral (locked) 

Recognition level - Academy Student 2nd stage

Game Level - Trainee

Game Pieces - None Bound Assets - None

The only change here was his recognition level. Which made sense. He hadn't really done anything else. Now for his skills.

Open Skills

Hidden Skills

Divine - Universal Language, God's Eye

Divine - Dimensional Construction, Knowledge Of The land

Legendary - Neutral Aura, Summoning, Master Of Trades

Legendary - Neutral To All, Knowledge Depositary, Blend

Heroic - Steel Mind. World Body

Heroic - Seeker, Master Merchant, Scholar

Extraordinary - Elemental Craftsman, Diplomacy

Extraordinary - Signatory

Basic - Tracker

Basic - Leadership

He looked at his skills. Master Merchant had moved up one and was coloured differently from before. He figured that the colour would be from skills levelled up from city of the demigods. Scholar had also moved up and he guessed it was from researching a topic that did not come naturally to him. Then there was three new skills. Diplomacy and leadership were two he was hoping for, but what was signatory doing there? Then he realised it was probably due to the agreements he had made and such. He pondered on the idea of factions with his newfound knowledge and understood there was a way forward for him. It would depend however, on the people he recruited. He understood that he would not be able to be like the big factions. No, his would probably be more like Kekemozz. Small, where everyone knew everyone else in the faction. It was also likely to be a hidden faction. Which in turn could cause problems in his dealings if people thought he was just a lone person, ripe for the taking. He thought about this and realised he could disguise his faction as a group at first. That way he would be associated with people, and grouping would probably be a good way of meeting people and learning about them. He lingered on this a while before finally deciding it was time to start on the merchantile side of things. It was probably one of his strongest sides, and he needed to get materials together so he could create, using his elemental craftsman skill. He couldn't wait to experiment with that.

So he portalled to the city of the demigods and proceeded to the shop recommended by hepht. Having a greater windfall in demis then he had expected to have, he decided to exchange 10 demis for coinage. He spoke at length with the proprietor of the shop. The gentleman in question, having been a bit bored when he had walked in, talked joyfully of the different coinage that he could buy. While, strictly speaking, it was all the same weight and had exactly the same spending power, the coinage wanted varied on how the epics intended to spend their coins. It turned out that most worlds had their own coinage. Worlds that were strung together in a pantheon often had the same coinage. As a result, due to the citizens of those worlds, the coinage of those worlds was obviously worth more then coins from other worlds, as they tended to distrust that coinage in favour of their own. There were some exceptions. One was a coin that had been set up by the city of the demigods and as a result it was popular with most epics due to it spending most highly in the city of the demigods over the local coins from where they came from. Since the city of the demigods tended to have the best equipment for their levels, epics brought often from there. The second exception was not so much a spending currency as it was a collectiing currency. The owner of the shop indicated he would explain more if a fee was paid of five demis. Tinkerson paid, as he thought the knowledge was useful. The owner then began to explain. Scattered through the universe were treasures that could only be opened with certain keys. Left behind by civilisations and powers that had collasped since, if you could find how to open them, it could be yours or sold for a goodly amount. Sometime in the past, someone had hit on the idea of setting some of these treasures to be opened by inserting coinage from that civilisation. How this came about, nobody knew. But as result, people would accept coinage of this sort, in the hopes of coming across these treasures.

In the end, advised by his skills and the gentleman in front of him, he purchased seven demis of city coins, two demis of the three most popular particular coinage and one demi of collectable coins. With the collectable coins he went for rarer types. It might take him a while to get rid of, but to the right person, they would be worth a lot. He then went to the portal area and sat down in a spare spot by the wall and started watching the portals.