Day 8 - August 20:31

Faith 1 / 10

Hunger 97 / 100%

One watched the three figures move closer and closer on the road, which he was standing on. The hill gave him a pretty good idea of the two advancing guys with the donkey. It was a rather bright night, and you were able to grasp what lied beyond your immediate reach easily. They were not all too fast, they would still need a couple of minutes until they could reach him on top of his hill. The fire behind him slowly died. Bright moonlight was now alone in charge.

One was considering his options. Encountering a merchant was a huge opportunity. If he traded some of his things, he most likely could easily gain information that was worthwhile. Maybe even gain something that boosted him further. Risk in this case however was pretty heavy.

The warrior was giving off bad vibes. His giant war axe and the shield he carried alongside all his metal armor indicated extreme brute force. One was certain that he would be able to one shot him with that axe. But then again it seemed the merchant was calling the shots here. Most like some sort of mercenary? If he was a hired blade that would change everything.

Then he could depend on the greed that every trader possessed since the stone age. Additionally he could be able to run away. It was a rather slim chance, but such heavy armor indicated weight and therefore slower movement. With One's buff he would be able to run at 1.5 movement speed easily and escape anyone slower with ease. After considering it for a bit he decided to stay.

He went with a piercing view, that looked quite creepily along the shadow robes. His dark hair, white skin and blue eyes did the rest. As he was satisfied with glaring at the newcomers he played with his dagger. Anything to raise respect was welcome, and with his dark robes he would look like a assassin and a threat. No beginner would cross his path if he had this look on his childlike face. It had something daring, like a horror movie hallway scene. Back in the shadows of the hallway it would wait. So did he on the end of the road.

At least it must have seemed that way, since the road “ended” on top of the road, where you could not see what was behind. Slowly they approached the hill. Then everything happened pretty quickly. “I’m in range.”, the warrior barked. The merchant looked disinterested and waved with his hand. “Hmm. Go then. Pinn him down.” The warrior drew his heavy axe in a flowing motion while pressing his right foot against the ground. He shot forward, carried by the extreme step-in. One was stunned by his speed and could barely manage to throw his dagger.

Unfortunately the dagger was blocked by the warriors armor and was unable to reach the merchant. He had hoped to distract the warrior for longer by targeting his master, which he would have to protect and then start running effectively. The dagger pierced the armor, but the NPC took no notice. He was clearly outmatching One. About half a meter away his dash came to a halt, the shield pushed air towards One with a heavy strike.  

[You have been stunned for 2 seconds from [Shield Dash IV].]

Then the warrior swung out a combo with his war axe. The handle knocked One of his feet falling to the ground stunned. Then the axe head swung towards his throat. It did not slice him, the bladeless steal between the blades at the top kept him pinned to the ground.

[You have been rooted. Duration can be broken by force.]

Great. With this huge senseless giant keeping him on the ground any attacks would be futile. One kept auto attacking him, although the brute did not seem to mind. After a good minute One stopped his futile barrage of dagger strikes. Then the merchant appeared, leading the donkey with his merchandise. One decided not to wait for his decision to kill him.

“Hello there.” One smiled insanely. “What’s up?”

Sekomi ignored him at first. He took out a metal stick, slammed it into the ground and bound the mule to it. Then finally he sat down and spoke to One.

“Well hello. Almost did not see you there, lying on the ground.” He sighted. “Why did you wait for us to approach? You could have run? Or did you think to attack us here?”

One pointed his finger at the glaring warrior. “Could you maybe..?”

“Fine. Dog, sit.” The huge man wanted to protest, but one glance and he quickly let off of him. Quickly One moved to a sitting position and smiled at the merchant. “Well, I saw that you clearly are a merchant. I would like to propose a trade. Information. I want to buy.” Sekomi cleary seemed to have no interest in that. Quicky One proposed another option. “And I would like for you to… uhm...  invest. In me.”

The trader seemed curious. “Huh. Normally I would not grant anyone to life with such a proposal. After all it is so much more easy to just end you and collect some loot for free. After all I have the power here with my dog.” He proceeded to poke the giant warrior with a stick. It looked hilarious. As the huge man got more and more grumpy from being poked in his ear and neck, One’s expression got more and more confused. NPCs were normally not that tolerant. Sekomi seemed to have picked up on his look.

“I pay him enough to ignore my every whim. One trip with me earns him more than a year stationed at a guard in a village. Anyway. Let's get to business. Do you have a problem with swearing to a permanent Nidrethg? If not I will happily trade anything with you.” He smiled deviously.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

As One had no idea what that meant. So he tried to gain information about that for free first. “I do not. However, first I would like to get a small, single, little question for free.” One smiled friendly. “For trading in good faith.” He waved his hands while explaining his intent.

Sekomi seemed unimpressed by his proposal. “Sure. Go ahead and ask. One question.”

“What is a Nidrethg?”

“Ahahah. Okey. I can see where you are coming from. That question to rule out being taken advantage of, very smart. Well, Nidrethg is a god, residing on the branches of Yggdrasil. The father of dragons to be accurate. And when we say Nidrethg, we refer to his power to grant contracts. If you swear something with a Nidrethg you bind yourself to a contract. Of course you are able to refuse to follow the oath. But then you die. And suffer the consequences of death. With a permanent Nidrethg however, you bind yourself to the contract permanently and each time you refuse to follow it, you die. They are expensive to get, but I am not exactly a poor man.”

One looked stunned. That shit was dangerous! Depending on what he would want him to swear, he would rather choose death. Dying once was much easier taken then a binding contract to another player forever. He found the merchant now much more devious. “I see. And what would you want me to swear here, Sekomi?”

The trader smiled. “That you pay me. Everytime I ask you to pay me you will have to do so.”

One obviously saw that there would be a rather big hook to the whole thing. “Well, then I would obviously want to be able to delay said payment with interest at least 3 times before I have to. And I have 24 hours each time to actually pay. Otherwise you could just kill me instantly whenever you want to on a whim.”

Sekomi smiled. “I agree. 5% added interest acceptable to you?”

One was really freaking out about his calm attitude. Was he scheming something bigger here? Just to be sure he added another clause. “The value of information has to be agreed upon by both parties before they are sold though.”

Sekomi nodded. “Agreed. Give me your arm.” One did not really feel all too safe about it but the terms stood and he would not swear anything else. The trader pulled out a small scroll from his inventory. He unrolled it on the dusty road and held his hand flat above. A small, shining rune appeared, floating just barely under his hand. Then, as One gave him his hand, he pressed the rune onto him. Immediately a shining orange snake bound around their arms. Sekomi proceeded to say the conditions they just agreed on out loud, and One confirmed to hold them true right after. The burning sensation he felt was really making him feel uncomfortable and serious. After they were finished a popup appeared again.

[You have sworn a permanent Nidrethg. The buyout fee for this oath is 9.856 [Gold].]

Holy shit. What a huge amount of gold. Just for One binding? Damn. One tried not the let his shock show. “Alright. Then first, I would like to buy some information. I want to know a couple of things concerning villages, a map that shows as much as possible, any information about dungeons, the other 8 worlds, gods and so on.”

Sekomi nodded. “Well that’s gonna be expensive. I can provide a pretty decent map, showing about one third of the world, detailed with every village, mountains, seas, rivers and part of the ocean. I will charge 600 silver for that though. For god's, dungeons and the eight worlds respectively you will have to pay me 200 silver each. There is not that much information out on that. What would you like to know about the villages? There is a lot of stuff to know, but not everything is interesting to you I imagine.”

One thought it over. That was a little over 4 gold total. Expensive. But you got to spent money to make friends. At least that’s what he hoped for. The guy seemed very wealthy and would make the perfect ally.

“Alright, before agreeing to that I would like to add more questions to the list. First: How much does that giant warrior cost you per day? Second: How wealthy are you? Third: Do you know if copper and silver ore can be used to print coins? Fourth: The main concern about villages to me is, that they are in constant conflict if you believe the rumors. How do you conquer them, put them under your rule? Then I want to add: What is the most likely way to quickly gain power in your opinion? And: How much does a Nidrethg cost?”

Sekomi smiled at him. “Alright. Let’s make it a total of 10 gold, shall we?” He winked at him.

Obviously he tried to gain a lot of easy money of a few simple questions. But what would 10 gold be in the long run? One needed this merchant. Wealth was power, and this guy was so wealthy One did not doubt he would be able to start a small war between villages in a heartbeat. “Agreed. And I have some fur’s that i could sell you. 80 rabbit pelts in total.”

The trader clapped his hands. “Fine then. You know, rabbits are pretty common so the pelts are not that valuable. I could do 100 silver. Half a goldcoin, since it’s you.”

One smiled too. “Of course. Improving future business between us.” After agreeing One gave him the pelts and they agreed to nine and a half gold coins for the information.

“Pleasure doing business with you. Now lets got through the questions. A permanent Nidrethg does cost 5 gold. You can get it from priests that worship dragons. Normal oaths cost between 1 silver and 1 gold, depending on how long or how binding the oath has to be. Then... the most likely way to gain power, was it?”

One nodded, pleased with the first answer. “Yes.”

“Well, in my opinion trade is the quickest way to advance, since we have no way to quickly level up or grind monsters right? For me, economics is as basic as breathing so i would do that either way, even if it wasn’t as efficient. I think i could buy a couple hundred warriors and try to conquer a village for myself. But what’s the point, they are my money farms, you know? I guess leveling your skills, mastering a profession, should be the most lucrative for the future.”

He paused to remind himself of the next questions. “The constant conflict between villages you refer to is not that extreme. There are a couple of raids, some bandits but other than that you are pretty safe to go wherever you want.” Sekomi looked at One for a long time. “And another thing, free of charge here, you can’t enter any village. You have a bounty on your head.”

One was surprised. “A bounty?” The merchant nodded.

“Yea, 1017 silver and 67 copper. Plus it was a little over 1015 when i met you, so it’s rising too. Actually that bounty is the only reason I’m speaking to you. It made me curious. Normally nobody has a bounty, and even if they do it’s small. For stealing mostly. But your bounty description does indicate [Spawn of the Deceiver]. Why is that?”

One facepalmed himself. Then he quickly swiped away the popup indicating, that he took one damage.

Loki had found another way to fuck with him. A bounty on his head. Just for being a priest to his name, some NPCs had been so pissed off, that they put a huge bounty on his head.

Just great.