I decided to equip Merchant to see what skill that got me.

{You have unlocked the Merchant skill: Haggle.}

“Haggle, huh?”

I found the names of the skills being unlocked to be rather uninformative. Haggle could mean a lot of things. I wouldn’t know what until I tried it out. Heading into the next store, it was the enchantment shop. It looked a lot like a jewelry store back home.

“Hello!” The shopkeeper was actually a man this time. “The hero, right? Please, pick out an accessory. 10% off just for you.”

I already knew I got 10% off because I was the hero, but he tried to make it sound like he personally was giving me 10% off. I could only smile wryly as I looked at the objects. I didn’t have any special vision that allowed me to see their status. Instead, there was a little card next to each item that explained what it did. Sadly, I couldn't read them, so I asked. As to whether the shopkeep was honest, that was another question. Either way, the descriptions he offered were a bit vague and he didn't go into any more detail.

Slightly Improves speed.

How much is ‘slightly’? I realized that the reason the owner was vague was that he didn’t really know. I wasn’t even sure if this world had identifiable numbers when associated with status. Is there HP or anything like that? I didn’t want to depend on HP to live. In fact, it’d be nice if I was never hit at all. Remembering those injured men the other day, HP didn’t seem to account for much.

“Do you have something like a storage ring to carry stuff?”

That was my immediate concern. How else was I going to carry the bag of stuff? It was way too heavy for me.

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“Storage rings?” The guy whistled through his teeth. “You might find them in the Capital, but they’re way too pricey to be found out here in the countryside. Even if I had one, I wouldn’t sell it.”

“Really?”

“About fifty gold coins for the smallest.”

My eyes widened, and I immediately tossed away any thoughts of owning a storage ring. “Is there anything else I could use?”

I pointed back at my pack I had set at the door. The man glanced over at it and scratched his chin.

“Well, I can do an enchantment directly on the backpack to reduce weight. Would you like that?”

I gave a tight smile. “I guess that would work.”

The man nodded. “In that case, I would have it done by the end of the day. Enchantments aren’t cheap though. You’re looking at one gold coin, ten silver, four this enchantment.”

Compared to the 50 gold coins for a storage ring, it really did seem small. However, the supplies the bag was carrying only cost around 5 silvers… so I was spending more money to carry the stuff than the stuff itself cost. I could always just take things out of the bag.

Then again, these were the supplies that the guild leader and store clerk thought were necessary for me to survive. That meant that they had a fair amount of value. My life was infinitely more valuable than the gold coin. I hadn’t had to pay for the supplies or my clothing, so I should consider this a blessing.

I sighed and nodded. “Very well. Please lighten my backpack.”

“Since you get 10% off I’ll give you the enchantment for 9 silver, kay?”

I nodded and then spoke the word while hiding it in a fake cough. “Haggle!”

The guy stared at me, not reacting at all to my cough. I let out a wry smile. I guess that was to be expected. I fished out a gold coin and handed it to him. A moment later, he fished in his bag and dropped three silver coins in my hand.

“There you go.” He smiled.

“Eh? How much did you say the enchantment is?” I asked.

“7 coins.” He blinked. “Is there a problem?”

“Ah… no, not at all.”

I signed a paper with words I couldn’t read and then left the store quickly without another word. Before I cast Haggle, it was 9, then after, it was 7. It appeared like Haggle took 20% off the original cost of any item, with my hero status taking another 10%. Could it be cast multiple times? Was there a chance of failure? What would happen if they failed? All of these questions ran through my head. More experiments were in order. However, I was hungry, so I returned to the inn. The meal today was a beef stew. It was very fulfilling and much better than the ramen I used to eat. This wasn’t so bad a life after all.