Chapter 5: Market

Hmm...

Hmm...

Hmm...

ARGH!!!!!! How would I buy things? I don’t even know how money works!

I had five pouches of gold coins. I can’t ask how much the items are, and there are no signboards or whatever. I got three of them from the dead thugs.

There weren't a lot of people in the market area. It must be because most of them are in the town square celebrating. Adventurers and a few odd villagers are the only ones here.

One pouch of gold would suffice for buying spears and shields. I think... I threw one pouch of gold to the merchant and took enough spears and shields for my group outside the village. I also took a cart from the stall to carry the goods.

The merchant was visibly shocked and bowed. "Thank you for your business!" Clearly, this is a sign that the deal was in his favor. As he kept bowing there, I hurriedly moved on to the next stall to buy simple armor.

Leather armor should be good. We will be traveling a lot, and we need to be swift. I considered chain mail made from lighter materials that are protective and sneaky at the same time, but it might be too pricey.

I pointed at the leather armor and threw the pouch of gold to the merchant. The merchant hurriedly put the set of armor in my cart. And about the sizes...

We won’t have any problems because we have nearly identical features, as we are all skeleton soldiers. There are exceptions, of course, but most of us are regular-size skeletons.

"Thank you very much! Come again!"

Aren’t these guys too happy and polite? What the hell? It might be that I was not used to it because most of the time in the great tomb, small-time skeletons like me get treated like stone statues.

I was also in need of a map. I went inside a bookstore and browsed their collection. Continental maps, world maps, and regional maps—the shop had a wide range of maps available.

I pointed out the map for this continent. The response of the owner shocked me.

"One gold coin for that, sir."

WHAT!?

And then, to confirm, I also pointed to the regional maps. "500 silver coins for each regional map.".

There was money aside from gold coins! Did I waste 200 gold coins on average equipment? I could have gotten all of the equipment for ten gold altogether if I knew the prices. Damn these human merchants.

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Frustrated, I bought a continental map and a north-south region map for two gold coins. I don't need a world map. Hopefully, I won't need it, and we will be able to find a safe place on this continent.

Each pouch had around 100 gold coins—what a loss! Why was this not in my common knowledge!? Maybe gold did not have that much value back in my time, when I was still human.

There are also spell books on sale and monster registries. And this awesome book. "Everything You Need to Know About the Human Race." Oh. We are going to need this to check the current power levels of humans.

The thugs did not seem to be strong, but the military is the one that we need to pay attention to. The thugs looked like they only operated in the city too, so ordinary villagers were stronger than them because, in villages, it would not be rare to encounter wild monsters or dangerous animals.

This forced people to live in the frontier villages to train themselves and be battle-ready.

I also believe those kinds of thugs won’t exist anymore in the future because the military doesn't have any enemies to fight with anymore and will be directed to preserve public order. Bye-bye thieves.

I bought the book for ten gold coins. Expensive. I looked at the spells and monster registries. I also looked at the profile for skeletons. Weak to fire. Weak to holy. Strong compatibility with ice and lightning spells. It is also immune to abnormal effects.

Exceptions are also common in the Skeleton race, such as a Flame Skeleton Soldier, who would be strong against fire, weak against ice and water spells, and able to produce fire spells.

I looked under the profile of a skeleton soldier. Weaknesses of the skeleton race. Easy to defeat by hitting the joints with sword handles and blunt weapons. Strong against cutting and piercing weapons. Small resistance to ice and water spells.

Spells that are found in skeleton soldiers are: , , and (rare). ? I looked at the description of Icy Touch because I did not know about this skill.

is always active, though, but ? Let's see later if I have that rare skill.

I continue reading the profile. Variations: Normal Skeleton Soldier, Fire Skeleton Soldier, Exploding Skeleton Soldier, Golden Skeleton Soldier. Others could exist but have not yet been discovered. Possible evolutions: skeleton archer, warrior, or officer. Hmm. The officer sounds good. I wonder how we could evolve, though. I continue reading.

Evolution Theory: Skeletons evolve by killing living creatures, taking their souls, and converting them to negative energy. Really?

I bought a book and spell books about ice and lightning. . . . . When I went outside the bookstore, I heard some people conversing and got something good.

Villager 1 "Hey, did you know? A group of skeletons are still alive and fighting with the main forces."

Villager 2: "The Skeleton King was slain, right?"

Villager 1: "It seems that killing the king won’t stop his servants." Villager 2: "The Duke, huh..."

Villager 2: "Who knows... he might take a few villages with him before he's taken down."

The two villagers looked very worried as they went on with their conversation.

At first, I thought this was my group, but it seems that there is still a group of undead that is strong enough to fight back.

We could team up with them and escape from the northern region!

Villager 1: "They are clashing right now near the south-west border of the region."

Villager 2: "They should fall soon. With the Paladins on our side, the undead won’t have a place anymore in this world."

The Skeleton Duke? Isn't he the strongest undead general? It was weird that he was not in the final battle. Some powerful enemies must have halted him.

I gulped, or I thought I did. I need to move my brothers as soon as possible. We need to meet up with that group. I walked quickly to the gates of the village to leave, but a guard suddenly walked up to me and asked.

"Hey, you. Can I see your permit?"

Permit? I was still pulling the cart filled with equipment during this. Oh. So, one would need a permit to buy multiple pieces of combat equipment. I stood there, frozen. I don’t know what to do.

Should I make a run for it? But that would expose me, and there's a high chance that I would get caught.

Suddenly, another guard shouts. "Thief! Thief!"

A kid was running, carrying a bag, and getting the attention of the guards. The guards chased the kid.

Lucky break there.

The kid looked like Souta. I thanked him in my mind and went through the gate. . . .

When I got outside, I saw the skeleton slaves again. They were locked in a cage along with other types of slaves. There were five of them in one small cage. I can't just leave them there...

I approached a man there who looked like the owner of the slaves. Since I could not talk, I pointed at the skeleton slaves, and with my gloved hand, I asked for five.

"Hmm. They're really expensive. Not a lot of slaves have them since they're being hunted right now." I nodded. "20 gold each." My pouch contained 100 gold coins, so I threw him one.

"Huh... I'm glad to do some business with you. Just make sure to keep the chains on them. They're not that strong, but they can work non-stop."

He showed me such an annoying smile that I almost stabbed him right there. I'm glad that I was able to keep it in.

After we got away from the village, I showed my face to the skeleton slaves. I removed their chains after that. I would've told them that they're free to go, but they don't have anywhere to go.

The skeletons followed me even after they lost their chains.