[Mona]: “All those stygian…”

[Mona]: “Died just like that?”

Minty smiles brightly before her cheeks flushed, “Ehehehe.”

[Minty]: “It’s actually thanks to this bow, it has like an AOE effect so it gets the job done nicely.”

[Mona]: “That’s, ahaha, I haven’t seen that one either.”

[Mona]: “Wow, you guys looks like you’re um… doing well! Even in this update.”

[Minty]: “We weren’t at first, but thanks to her, I’ve managed. Plus, she’s a Realism Mode player before it was deprecated anyway.”

[Mona]: “What, you were?”

I nodded.

[Mona]: “Th-That’s insane! Then, I guess there’s nothing really changed with the update for you then?”

[Siola]: “Haha, what do you mean. The new system takes a while to get used to, I lost a lot of my abilities too, so there is a lot that has changed, miss Mona.”

[Mona]: “R-Right but…”

[Siola]: “I guess the reason you’re struggling is because you’re not accustomed of thinking that everything is real here, yeah? The pain, the exhaustion. Resource management, you know.”

[Mona]: “S-Struggling?”

[Minty]: “Ah, we saw a bit of your stream before. I mean we didn’t really know what happens afterward, we just saw you were exhausted. Probably have killed those apes no prob, right?”

[Mona]: “Ah… ahaha, yeah…

As the last Stygian ape died out blood lost, we walk.

[Minty]: “Okay, that’s the loot for you miss Mona.”

[Mona]: “No, you can keep it. I didn’t even do anything anyway.”

[Minty]: “Eh? Really? Thanks!”

[Siola]: “Still. You should’ve been fine in dealing with these monsters in your level.”

[Mona]: “I was… I could kill them without even touching them, but after the update, I um… kind of messed up my profile status.”

[Minty]: “Did you forget to put any stat on Vitality?”

She blushes and nods.

[Mona]: “Fuck, I don’t know why I started blabbering to you guys about this. Never mind that, and please don’t tell anyone, okay?”

[Siola]: “Right. You are just a temporary party member after all. The town is over there.”

[Minty]: “I guess this is it, huh.”

[Minty]: “I know this was just a little walk, but thank you for partying up together with us, miss Mona.”

[Mona]: “Huh? Ah, no, I wasn’t even doing anything. Thank you, Silvita.”

[Mona]: “But, um, are you guys on any guild?”

[Siola]: “Why, you want us to join your guild?

[Mona]: “No, I don’t have one, but um…”

[Mona]: “Actually, never mind.”

I know what she was about to say, and I don’t like it. There’s a lot of variables of what would happen if her temporary companion status becomes permanent, and one of them is the likelihood of Minty just becoming another spectator to the action. Like she was to me.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

I’ve promised her mother, and I intend to keep it.

Mona ended up adding us to her friends list, and we go our separate ways once we reach the town of Ravenswood. It’s way larger than I expected. The place that I’ve never interested in because at the point where I was aware of its existence, I was already killing demons on another realm.

[Minty]: “Wow, usually there’s a lot of players here, but now— well, there’s still a lot, but I can actually look at the street now. It’s not packed to the brim like before.”

[Siola]: “We should find a place to relax. Can’t just open up a shop on a whim.”

[Minty]: “A restaurant maybe?”

[Minty]: “Or, there needs to be like a good spot for portable vendor maybe?”

[Siola]: “Portable vendor?”

[Minty]: “It’s like when you set it up, people can see that you are a vendor, and then they can come over and browse our goods. Travelling merchant, stuff like that.”

[Siola]: “Ahhh, well we better grab a table somewhere, gets us food and drinks too.”

[Minty]: “Sounds like a plan.”

In an open restaurant, under the shade of its roof, we took our seat at the corner. We got ales in bottles, meat skewers, melted cheese and bread.

[Minty]: “Sorry, I only got a few golds.”

[Siola]: “Hm? Right, we do want that currency too.”

As I take a bite of the skewer, Minty sits uncomfortably close to me as she opens Cash Shop. And there it takes us to the setup process.

[Minty]: “Hmm, what do we name it?”

[Siola]: “General Store?”

[Minty]: “Seriously?”

[Siola]: “Hhmm…”

[Minty]: “Oh, how about we just use our name?”

[Minty]: “Sioty or Minla?”

Feeding her the next meat on the skewer.

[Minty]: “Mmph.”

[Siola]: “S&M.”

[Minty]: “Hm? Waih—.”

*Cough *Cough

[Siola]: “I’m just kidding.”

[Siola]: “How about this one.”

[Minty]: “D-O-L…”

[Minty]: “Dola?”

[Siola]: “Yeah, it gotta be this.”

[Minty]: “Okay, next.”

She added me to the list of founders. Revenue split was 70:30 heavy on me, but I fought her finger on the slide and now it’s 51:49 so that I have access to her shared party items inventory. There we have established our own store in the Cash Shop.

[Minty]: “Okay, what do we sell?”

[Siola]: “That dagger you’ve got, the [Stygian Sting], that’ll get us something. Check the Marketplace and the Auction.”

[Minty]: “Let’s see…”

[Minty]: “Lowest price in the marketplace is $2300???”

[Siola]: “Hunh, so low.”

[Minty]: “What? No! For you maybe, but that’s big, Siola! $2300 for a single item.”

[Siola]: “I guess it’s a lot then.”

[Minty]: “It sure is, but how much should we sell them for? $2200?”

The next one is selling it for $2450 and there are five of them selling it for $2500.

[Siola]: “Do it for $2500.”

[Minty]: “Eh? Really?”

[Siola]: “It’s automated right? Like, you don’t have to confirm purchase or anything?”

[Minty]: “I think so.”

[Siola]: “Just list it then.”

Once it is listed, we look through the prices for magic core. Lowest price for an Uncommon is a dozen per dollar and 5 Rare per dollar and one per Epic.

[Minty]: “Should we sell them?”

[Siola]: “It’s a chump change. Best if we use it to get golds instead.”

[Minty]: “Well, what else we can sell then?”

[Minty]: “We can’t sell my bow, right?”

[Siola]: “No, why do we sell the thing we use?”

Looking into our pretty sad inventory.

[Siola]: “Once we learn the spells from those tomes, we can sell them afterward, I think, but for now, sell that one.”

[Minty]: “Eh, this one? You sure?”

[Minty]: “It sounds so powerful though, I bet you could use it when you level up later on.”

[Siola]: “Yeah, and like what, a hundred level? I like conjuration but my class is not suitable for it.”

[Minty]: “Hmm, no one is selling in the marketplace though.”

[Siola]: “Put it on Auction. What’s the average sales of legendary orb?”

There’s only a handful of legendary items are sold in the Marketplace, and although there are more in Auction, I was expecting more competition.

[Minty]: “Th-This is insane, Siola. There’s no legendary orb that has ever been listed, but the legendary items that got sold are no less than a hundred thousand dollars.”

[Minty]: “Did we just… win a lottery, Siola?”

Being excited for it is good. Especially so since legendary items cost a lot nowadays. Back then it wouldn’t even touch any more than 10k..

[Minty]: “So, we put it in Auction, right?”

[Siola]: “Mhm.”

[Minty]: “Okay, phew. Okay, um, what’s the initial price?”

[Siola]: “Let’s see… One million.”

*Cough*

[Minty]: “Wha?”

[Minty]: “No way, Siola. I mean, wh-why, wh-who would even buy um…?”

Looking at her in the eye with brows raised and a tilty smile.

[Minty]: “Wait, you’re serious. Oh my god, my heart can’t take this.”

[Siola]: “Put the initial price of that and buyout Not Set. No time limit either.”

[Minty]: “Eh? I mean, 1 million. You think we can get more?”

[Siola]: “There’s a lot of rich people out there. And you’re talking to one of them here.”

[Minty]: “Mmmmrmph, okay.”

[Minty]: “Crypt Death Lock… is now up!”

Exhausted as she leans on my chest, “Goodness, I think I need a break. And there’s the other ones too. Should I put it up?”

“Not for now. I mean do you need more than one million?”

“Jeez, Siola. That amount of money can do a lot for me already.”

Chuckles, feeding her another meat on a skewer.

After that meal, we got hungry and so we decided to log out and have lunch. Minty Mama and Papa is out so we ordered a meal from the restaurant downstairs.