Shin’s lower back complained as he shifted himself off the cart, the long days of sitting idle taking their toll. His foot met the ground in a union he was not eager to break again any sooner than he had to. Excitedly walking for the first time in many hours, he beckoned the horses to a hitching post near his uncle's shop. Luckily for him it was located enroute to the adventurers guild. More mindful of the fact that his uncle had a reputation to uphold than the man himself, Shin tried to enter the shop through a side entrance where he wouldn’t be seen.
The door was unsurprisingly locked, he gave a sigh of acceptance as he made his way round the front and entered through the main door. The door welcomingly opened with ease, revealing the overpriced array of mismatched artifacts, paintings, weapons and books that his uncle’s store prided itself on. Ryan, one of his uncle’s employees, attended him as soon as his feet touched the cloth of the store's floor. “Good afternoon, are you looking for anyth…Oh, sorry Shin. Your uncle is upstairs in a meeting.” Ryan started, his salesman training having got the better of him due to the absence of customers today.
Shin had to actively ignore the green text above his head that confirmed his name. “Oh, who’s he with?” Shin asked, hoping to get out of here and deliver Tilla’s package soon. “A director of the three star trading company, shouldn’t be long. You should come through to the back, you look a bit…” Ryan explained, trailing off at the end to gesture at Shin’s shabby attire.
Once in the storage room Shin made himself comfortable on a sack of treated pelts. Ryan positioned himself by the door so that he could sit at the counter in the shop and still talk to Shin. “How was your first trip? Did you get the ‘big tip’ you were hoping for?” Ryan jabbed after hearing Shin slump on the sack. This was a regular occurrence for the two of them and they quickly settled into their usual back and forth. “Uhh, It was...Interesting and I got a bit more than I expected,” Shin said, avoiding giving anything away before he got to talk to his uncle. “What about you? Business seems quiet. Are you managing to save enough?” Shin asked, relishing in the comfort of familiarity. His eyes exploring the new stock.
“Nah, the plan has taken a bit of a hit, business has been slow and the commissions are hard to come by. I should have enough by early next year. Hopefully she’s willing to wait,” Ryan honestly shared. “It’ll be fine, you’re the only person in the kingdom that’s willing to put up with her violent temper,” Shin assessed. Ryan was about to respond when the door opened. It was clearly a customer based on the “Good afternoon, are you looking for anything in particular?” Ryan had opened the talk with.
Disinterested in eavesdropping, Shin nudged the door closed and began browsing the stockroom. The room was filled with an even weirder assortment than the showroom, which was to be expected for a company that specialized in trading between races and dungeon artifacts. Investigating the stock was always a great pass time but he refused to touch anything as there were more than a few cursed items mixed among the stock.
He could recall a time when he had been a bit too handsy with a dwarven helm, taken from one of their lords, and awoken weeks later after spending the time digging in the ground with his hands. His head had felt like a pulsing heart of raw nerves for some time after that. It wasn’t because of the Item but rather the beating he got from his overprotective uncle for touching dangerous stuff. The motto “never trust a dwarf” really sunk in after that, any monster that willingly cursed themselves was not one to be trusted.
The items ranged from weapons to art pieces. The smell of lost knowledge intoxicating and strange designs captivating. Shin's mind was drawn in by the weapons for the first time in his life. After so many people died due to famine he, like most who had experienced it, couldn’t bring himself to care for weapons, until now.
Sure that his new found intrigue had something to do with gamers mentality, he stubbornly looked away from the weapons and grabbed his book from one of the shelves, exactly where he left it. Soon after, he was sitting back on the pelt sack and immersed himself in “The turns of time”, a history book focused on the political plays that resulted in a commoner taking charge of the northern kingdom many decades ago.
Shin was dragged out of his immersion when he was kicked in the leg. “How was the trip runt?” asked his uncle, looming over him. The name tag above him read [Rook shieldsmith (NPC)]. He was so distracted that he had missed the behemoth of a man sneaking up on him. The man was not just three heads taller than shin but also a mix of bulky and chunky with unkempt facial hair, resulting in a “wild man” sort of look. “Ow. It was ok. Did things go alright with the meeting? Ryan said that it was the director of three star,” Shin asked, rubbing his leg in an attempt to ease the pain, clearly happy to see the man. “Ha, things went better than alright ! You are looking at the sole distributor of the mid grade artifacts coming from the raid on Drovan” His uncle proclaimed proudly.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“So they found it!, did they wipe out all the monsters already?” Shin asked excitedly. Drovan was a large monster settlement located somewhere near the northern capital, but it had evaded detection for years. Their constant attacks were difficult to handle due to the drow and doppelgangers that ran the place. It was in their nature to be sneaky and deceptive. His uncle frowned “They got most of the drow but the dopples mixed in with the attack force and got out, including both of the head families. I don't think they will be bothering anyone anytime soon, haha”. He said, laughing off the threat that they posed.
Shin regained his focus on the topic he wanted to discuss, having been lost in visions of lost historical texts and artifacts passing through the shop. “Do you mind if we have a talk over lunch tomorrow?” he asked. “Why wait till tomorrow. Let’s go out for dinner to celebrate!” came the response. After considering it, Shin decided that Tilla’s package could wait till the morning.
The two made their way to the markets to grab some food, restaurants weren't his uncle’s style. Nothing normal was. He always subverted the expectations of a successful merchant, seemingly intentionally. “So what did you want to talk about?,” his uncle asked. Shin took a breath and began with his tale “Something happened on the trip and I don’t know how to handle it,” they kept walking, not being questioned by his uncle he continued “As you know, I gave a tour of the kingdom. The guy, Jakob, wanted me to show him the borderlands of the kingdom...He wasn’t what I expected and the entire thing was a bit weird. Everything went fine till the last day when he disappeared...” he explained, falling into thought about how to explain the situation without mentioning the “real world”. It was going to be hard enough to convince his happy-go-lucky uncle that he was serious even without talk of other worlds.
They kept walking through the market in silence but due to Shin’s slow continuation, his uncle got the wrong idea. His uncle’s attempt at a serious composure broke “Haha, don’t be dramatic, he just dipped on paying the tip...it happens all the time, at least you’re safe. If you don’t want to keep being a cart driver, you can always accept my offer.” his large body convolving with his laugh. He slammed shin on his back with a large meaty paw. His eyebrow raised at the mention of the offer. “ No, I got the tip. That's what I’m trying to tell you. It..” Shin began before being interrupted “That’s great then. See, nothing to worry about. The man probably had other business to do so stop moping and let's grab some skewers to celebrate!” his uncle cheered, as he turned to one of the stalls and started ordering some food for the pair.
Staring at the gargantuan back of his uncle, Shin resolved to talk to him some other time. His Uncle rarely seemed as happy as he was at the moment and large successes like the one the man had today were rare in his business. His uncle never let others know if he was struggling, but given the lack of customers Shin had seen this must have been a relief for him. Shin would be damned if he would ruin this for him.
Shin’s uncle turned away from the food stall, two skewers lodged in between his bottom lip and gums as though they were orc tusks. His face contorted in his best impression of the monster. Shin stared at his uncle's childish antics, his face a marble bust of disappointment. A few odd gazes were shot in their direction. The moments felt like hours as the pair stared at each other before both couldn’t hold it anymore and they broke into uproarious laughter. It felt good to be home. The pair found a spot to sit on the water fountain in the market plaza. Stuffing their faces with skewers and baked treats from the market. Whenever food was involved between them, silence reigned. Only munching and the tearing meat could be heard.
Packing all the trash in one place a question came to Shin’s mind. “If the settlement is wiped, does that mean you can expand to trade in the Northern capital as well?” He asked. This idea intrigued his uncle “I suppose it does, if the caravan can be guarded by a smaller force. I suppose that would give me a large enough margin for it to be worthwhile. Why do you ask? Do you want to take up my offer and go run your own shop over there?,” His uncle asked. This time a text bubble appeared before Shin’s eyes.
[Class change: Do you wish to become the class “Merchant” Accept? Decline?]
He was becoming better at ignoring the system messages. Without breaking eye contact he spoke “I really appreciate the offer but I think I will keep going with the cart driving thing, if I don't get fired tonight”. Shin’s uncle clearly expected the response and gave a nod in consent before adding a final word to their conversation.
“I get that you think that I am offering this just because you’re my nephew but that’s not it... I am offering this based purely on your skill. Between Lisa, Ryan and yourself. Your negotiation ability is the weakest, you refuse to upsell and you couldn't calculate an expense report if your life depended on it, However, you always do what's best for your customers despite the loss in short term profit.
I remember being confused when a customer came in and asked you for a book that we didn’t have. Not only did you talk with her till she was comfortable enough to wait for you to retrieve the book. You ran around the markets and found it for her. At the time I was furious that you left your post and I was even more annoyed that you sold it to her for the same price you bought it. I didn’t say anything because later that week she came back. She bought another book and has made it a tradition to browse our store every time she comes to the capital.
All the customers you have dealt with were happy at the end of the day and most have stayed loyal patrons since and that made me realise something. You can always practice negotiation and outsource your equations but knowing what people need and giving it to them for a fair price is the mark of a great merchant. Success in this business isn’t measured in profits, it’s measured in loyalty. So If you change your mind, just let me know,”
Having said his piece he patted Shin on the back and stood up. “Enough of that for now, let’s grab a drink.”