I tasked myself with collecting 1 ingredient a day and hunting 1 animal a day for the next month. All the while I continued to grow my dimensional home. After a month passed, I’d collected enough ingredients to make a few potions and had 15 deer’s worth of meat to trade to the village. I decided to make my way there so I could buy the proper tools I’d need to craft. Things like a cauldron, bottles, a stir stick, and a bottling ladle. I kept the hides and antlers for myself as they could be used as ingredients.

It's been nearly 35 days since I was last at the village and when I got there, I saw a large carriage with all kinds of nick knacks crammed into it. Pulled over to the side of the village gate. Sitting outside the carriage was a man with long black hair and a very ornamental robe sitting on a fashionable rug with his wares placed all across it. He had violet eyes mixed with speckles of gold. What was more astonishing was that I recognized him.

El the Magnificent. He was one of the most powerful creatures in all of my worlds. Nearly a God himself. What was he doing here in a place like this? I was aware of his desire to become the sought after merchant across the realms but why was he here in a random village in the middle of nowhere? He sold and created items that were nearly impossible to find without direct intervention from the gods. So much so that I’d directly interacted with him on multiple occasions.

As I was lost in thought, staring at him he lifted his head, catching my eye. With a knowing smile he hawked his wares at me.

“Come adventure! See what I have in store for you! It may just be the thing you’re looking for or it may be something you never knew you needed.”, He said to me with an impish grin.

I approached cautiously looking at the items he had laid out on his rug. Once I got close enough to get a good look at them. It all changed. Shifting into a Book, a scroll, a Map, and two distinct sets of Tools. One for illustrations of some kind and the other for carving gems.

“I see you found what you’re looking for. What say you, my lord?”, He said that last bit with a whisper and a smile.

“I’ll sell it all to you for let’s say. Oh, I know. One favor in the future.”, again he said that last bit with a whisper.

That was all the confirmation I needed to know that he knew who I was. In the past he’d always tried to bargain with me for a favor. I’d never taken him up on it because I never needed it. I could control time and peer into his mind without effort. Now I needed all the help I could get and somehow, he knew it.

I asked him a barrage of questions, “How did you find me? What do you know? Were you involved? What do you gain from this?”

Raising his hands he said, “Woo, woo. Settle down my lord. I’ll answer your questions, though not in order. I wasn’t involved. All I know is that you took a mortal form and seem to be trapped like this for some reason. Another god showed me how to find you and lastly, I stand to gain two things from this. A favor from my creator and a chance to gain your grace. And to answer the next question I’m sure you have for me. No. I don’t know which god told me about you. A scroll just popped up in my wares one day and I opened it. Inside was a letter stating that you were trapped here in this world and that you needed my help. The rest of the scroll taught me how to teleport here. That's it. Once I learned the spell the scroll burst into golden flames and vanished. So, what do you want to do? I know you need these. My rug reads the minds of those who look at it and summons anything that they would need that I have in my possession and that they could afford. I’ve been watching you for the last few months and it seems that you don’t really have money. So that means the only thing you could pay me with is a favor. I’ll even tell you what I want as a favor. What I want is to be granted a portion of your power so I can duplicate myself and sell my wares across all the realms at the same time. I love to travel, and I love being a merchant. I don’t really have a desire for power, nor do I want to become desired and loved by all. I just want to travel across the universe and sell stuff while making stuff. That is my true love, one I’ll never part with.”

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We held each other's gaze for a moment before I started laughing. I couldn’t hold it in by this point. With a confused look he chuckled nervously waiting for me to answer him.

So, I did, “Really El? That’s all you ever wanted. When I peered into your mind all those times before I saw you surrounded by gold with a scowl on your face.”, quickly switching from a laugh to a scowl I said, “Now tell me why that is?”

Oddly enough his look of nervousness switched to one of relief, “Oh that’s easy. Though I do charge for my goods. I only do so as a resource to barter for regents to make new and interesting ones. If I was surrounded by gold that would mean that I was unable to buy something interesting to work with. Where’s the fun in that?”

Looking into his eyes. I searched for any sign of deception but couldn’t find anything. Instead, I found the wanderlust of a child mixing leaves into a bow pretending it to be a potion. Sheer joy in the pursuit of happiness.

With a sigh I said, “Dude you really don’t care about anything else, do you? If I’d known that all those years ago, I would have just given you the power. No need to barter for it. I truly enjoy watching you and everyone else pursue their dreams and goals. But now I need you so yes. I’ll take you up on your deal but with one amendment. Once a year you must stop by my new realm to trade for goods that you think I’ll need. Do we have a deal?”

“Deal!”, He said excitedly followed by, “And I think you're missing the point. If you’d just given me the power, I wouldn’t have earned it. Crafting isn’t the only thing I love but the barter involved in trading it for something new and wonderful!”

We shook hands and he handed me the promised goods. A Book on rune magic, a spell scroll teaching me the summon creature spell, an interactive Map of the world though it seemed that I could only see places I’ve been to, and two distinct sets of Tools. One for illustrations assuming those are for the runes and the other for carving and engraving gems. That rug of his is pretty damn awesome. It was right on the money. I needed all of these things. I of course could have created the spell summon myself, but I would have needed to be specific in the creature I wanted to summon. With this spell it would summon a creature appropriate for the area and or the task at hand.

The book on rune magic would teach me how to make some of my spells permanent if affixed to an object. Such as a wall, staff, rock, or any inanimate object really. That would help me maintain my magic much better in prolonged fights or with defense spells. The map is a no-brainer. A map of this quality would be useful to anyone who wasn't a god of the land. Thinking about it, both sets of tools are meant for runes. One to draw on things like staves, walls, doors and such but the gem tools. They are meant to be used to carve runes into gems. Which would allow me to empower them further and have greater control over the spells inside the gem. It would also allow me to put more spells onto a single gem giving me finer control of my inscriptions.

Laughing to myself I finally made my way into the village to sell some goods to the butcher and get the supplies I came here for.

After selling the meat I came out 3 silvers richer again. I didn't really understand the value of money but whatever worked for them. I bought a backpack, some bottles, a complete set of alchemy tools, a blanket and pillow, a steel knife, a blank book, some ink and a quill, and some traveler's clothes. In the event I ever went to another city I’d want to look as normal as possible. After all that I was left with 1 silver, so I decided to pocket the coin. You never knew with a coin or two would make a difference as a mortal.