He quickly made his way through the bustling streets, which seemed to fill up more and more by the day, and reached the line for the Trading Hub. He quickly got in line, patiently waiting for his turn. Many of the others there eyed him with respect, mingled with fear, but he paid them no mind.
As he approached the portal, he went through the inventory of the items that he had picked up during his time in Tartarus. He had a plethora of scales from reptilian beasts, but also some fragments of rock from the golems. He had taken some of the obsidian lining of their bodies, which had been tough enough to repel his strikes. Surely that had to be worth something.
He also had some Tier 2 ores that he had picked up along the way. After having upgraded his armor and weapon, all that was left for him to do was to collect any Tier 2 deposits that he could find. He suspected that the metal would be the most valuable item out of his stock.
He had a few dozen pounds of Tier 2 iron, as well as some Tier 2 copper, which he had found near an Uthraki village. It had been an unexpected find, but he assumed that it would be good for something.
With his inventory done, he surveyed the people standing in front of him, waiting to enter. Most of them were merchants, as there was hardly much opportunity for other citizens to amass stores of trading goods. The woman who had gained the ability in the first place sat by the portal, reading a book. It seemed that she gained essence from those who used the portal, as some sort of a tax. In any case, it allowed for her to simply sit there as the world went by.
Over the last few weeks, her capacity for how many people could enter the portal had increased. Now, Jonathan saw multiple people entering and exiting at the same time. That would allow him to linger longer. Not that anyone would have stopped him, of course. He still would have felt bad about it though.
By the time he had reached the front of the line, he was itching to get into the Trading Hub. He had been short on cash, as well as a way to spend it, for a while now. Sure, he had picked up a few hundred Leviathan Marks here and there, but as he had seen from the prices in the Trading Hub, that was not enough to buy anything at his level.
Eventually, it was his turn. He stepped through the coruscating portal, and into the Trading Hub. Jonathan appeared in the middle of the city like maze of stalls and merchants, quickly getting out of the way of the traffic. Everyone was on foot, but people still moved at the speed of their levels in the real world.
Stolen story; please report.
This was the section that corresponded with the first few Tiers, but there were still people who were clearly stronger than Jonathan here. He avoided them, and started down the road, looking for somewhere that he could drop his goods. When he had come to this world before, he had only explored a tiny area. However, now that he had more time, he started to roam the streets. With his superior memory, there was no way that he would forget the location of the portal.
The stalls seemed to grow more ornate as time went on, and soon he began to see buildings. At the very end of the street was a massive hall, with a steady stream of people going in and out. That seemed as likely a place as any to dump his load of high tier goods.
He inserted himself into the line, and quickly entered the building, finding himself standing in the middle of a massive complex of what looked like pits. Each of them had a title floating above them, corresponding with the goods that they sold. There was one for armor nearby, as well as one for art. There was a clear imbalance in the popularity of the pits, as almost ten times more people were standing around the weapons one than the art one.
Jonathan quickly found the one he was looking for, one that said resources. He made his way over, and found that there were two sides to the pit. One of them had an informal auction setup going on, with people bidding with paddles for goods displayed in the bottom of the pit by an enthusiastic auctioneer. On the other side, people dropped off their goods at a stall, where they received a receipt. It seemed that the goods being bid on were those of the sellers, who stood to make a profit if they were lucky. Jonathan assumed that the auctioneers took a bit off the top as well.
There were about thirty people waiting to peddle their wares, and Jonathan joined that line. Most of them had a few pounds of material at most, which made Jonathan feel better about his goods. Strangely enough, the highest tier of goods that he saw were Tier 2 goods, which was strange, given that there were people higher than that rank here. Then he spotted the large door at the back of the room, likely leading to an auction area for higher level patrons. Jonathan sighed, and simply waited in line, not really thinking about anything.
Ten minutes later, it was his turn. He nodded at the auctioneer, a demure woman from some race unknown to him. She had human-like features, but far larger eyes than a human did. In addition, a tendril drooped forwards from her forehead, like an anglerfish.
Jonathan spotted a depression in the table to place his goods in, and he began. Stuff began to pour out of his storage device in a tide, and the woman’s eyes widened. Soon, the depression was overflowing, and he was told to stop.
The woman pressed a button, and the table split in half, sending his goods down a chute. He then continued to unload. It took four rotations to fully process his wares, and he was given a strip of paper as a receipt. It was all itemized on the paper, telling him exactly what he had. The woman also handed him a paddle to bid with, if he wanted to. With a smile, he left the line, and headed over to the auction area. He wanted to see what his goods would sell for.