In the morning, when Rid placed a big bowl of scrambled eggs with meat in front of Rue, Rue sighed, shook his head, and said, “Rue too tired eat.” But he stored it for later. Rid jerked in surprise when the bowl disappeared, but didn’t ask. Smart butler. I handed him another silver coin. This time, he slipped it into his pocket without a word, bowed, and thanked me.
I looked at Rue’s belly, which was still bloated, but five months pregnant, not nine.
Tired, riiight.
After Rid left, I told Rue, “I’m going to return to the bazaar. I want to level my merchant class. You stay and rest.”
He nodded and settled on the couch.
I flew down to the lobby to pay for another week. When I reached the ground-floor landing, people were again moving back and forth between the lobby and back doors. Based on their clothes, they didn’t look like hotel employees, but more like guests.
I approached a woman. “Excuse me, ma’am. Could you tell me where the other door leads?” I asked.
She looked at me with a wrinkled nose, like she’d just smelled something foul—and no, I didn’t stink. I cast Clean on myself three times a day. In a condescending tone, she replied, “Bathhouse.”
“Thank you,” I said, heading to the lobby. I understood what Lis meant when he said all nobles are shitheads.
After paying for another week, I flew up the stairs back to our suite. From the balcony, I headed towards the bazaar. Passing above Adi’s store, I decided to check if he had any more money. I landed behind the store, stood in an alcove that hid me, became visible, and walked in.
When Adi saw me, his eyes widened, and a broad smile spread. “Hello, dear John. I am so glad to see you. I hope you’ve come to sell me more things?”
“Of course,” I replied with a grin.
He rubbed his hands together. “Excellent, excellent!”
I showed him more clothes from Vegas—not black, of course. He moved them all to the left side. So far, so good. I showed him more makeup, which also went to the left, and more perfume, which followed suit. After he selected even more than the day before, he raised his hand in a ‘stop’ gesture, saying, “That’s enough for today. If you visit tomorrow, I might have more money.”
After a quick negotiation, he paid me fifty-two gold, and I left the store.
I love good customers.
I visited the same alcove and flew to the bazaar. When I arrived, I flew into the trees, made sure no one saw me, became visible, and walked out.
As I strolled down the bazaar, a call reached my ears. “Trader John!”
Looking around, I spotted a merchant behind one of the fruit carts, waving for me to approach. “Yes?” I asked, stepping closer.
“Are you the merchant who sells the glasses that protect from the sun?” he asked eagerly.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“Please sell me one. Yesterday, you had already left when I finished, and I didn’t have a chance to catch you.”
I sold him a pair and kept going. I noticed many people whispering and pointing at me. Glancing back, I saw that quite a few were following me. The same scene with the first merchant repeated itself many more times, taking me almost four hours to reach the end of the bazaar. On the bright side, I earned 117 gold, so I wasn’t complaining. The group trailing me had swelled to several hundred people by then.
When I set up my stand and started laying out sunglasses, they swarmed me like locusts on a grain field. I had to shout, “Patience, patience! I have enough for everyone. One by one.”
Because of the popularity of my booth, I used the opportunity to sell something else. I had boxes of luxury handbags, so I put some on display. At first, no one seemed interested in the bags, only the sunglasses. About half an hour later, five noble dandies approached. Four were already wearing sunglasses, while the fifth came to buy a pair. He picked up a turquoise bag with tassels, eyeing it curiously.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“It’s a bag for carrying things,” I explained.
“Why do I need it?”
I slung the bag over my shoulder and said, “You wear it like this so your hands are free.” I opened the zippers, showing him the compartments. “You can put all kinds of things in here—your money pouch, a water bottle, a handkerchief for a lady, a self-defense dagger, a comb, anything you want.”
He looked at the bag with suspicion. “Yes, but why do I need it?”
With a grin, I slung it over my shoulder again. “This isn’t just a convenience item. It’s a fashion statement. The color and design show you have exquisite taste and appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. And the comfort? It says you’re a smart gentleman, prepared for any situation. This bag speaks volumes about your refined qualities.”
I’m killing this A Nose for Business thing.
He still looked unsure, but his four friends nodded vigorously and immediately bought bags. When he saw that, he reluctantly bought one as well. I was smarter with the pricing for the bags, selling them at the Appraisal value—three gold each.
By noon, I had run out of sunglasses, though customers kept asking for them. I still had oversized novelty sunglasses, but I wasn’t sure if customers would like them. I shrugged; if you don’t try, you won’t know. Of course, they loved them even more than the regular sunglasses. By this point, I must’ve developed an immunity to surprises—I just accepted it and kept trading. By the end of the day, I’d sold all the oversized sunglasses and more than half of the bags, earning 623 gold.
But still no level in the Merchant Profession.
Bad system!
I flew towards the bazaar again the following day, but Rue joined me, swooping from above. Of course, I stopped by Adi’s on the way. When we reached the back room, Adi looked excited as he asked, “Do you have any other interesting things besides what you showed me so far?”
“Yes, a lot,” I replied, shrugging casually.
“Show me, please,” he said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
I started pulling out designer bags and Estee Lauder cosmetics—day creams, night creams, eye creams, peelings, masks, and all kinds of serums for the face, hair, body, and various other cosmetics. I also showed him the perfumes, though he’d already bought a fair amount, along with designer shoes, belts, and accessories. As a joke, I pulled out the Vegas showgirls’ outfits with feathers, smirking as I laid them out. Naturally, his eyes lit up, and he grinned. He liked those the most.
By the time I finished, Adi looked like the embodiment of greed, practically shaking with excitement. His voice wavered as he asked, “How much do you have of everything?”
“A lot.”
“How much is ‘a lot’?” he pressed, leaning forward. “I want to know exact quantities and prices.”
It took us hours to go through everything, counting, calculating, and tallying it all up. I watched him scribble furiously, his face tense with concentration. This time, I offered him prices with a 20% discount for being a preferred customer, not half-price. By the end of the marathon, the total came to over 3,000 gold.
Adi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “This shop isn’t mine,” he said with a sigh. “I have a supporter. The problem is that he takes half the profits daily, leaving me with a limited amount to buy stock. We subtract the stock cost from the profits, but it still limits me when buying more.” He paused, then brightened up. “Let’s do this: leave me one of everything as a sample. I’ll meet with my supporter tonight or tomorrow, show him the samples, and ask him to finance the stock.”
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I nodded and handed him one of each item, raising an eyebrow. “So, should I come back in two days?”
“Yes,” he said, nodding eagerly. “Two days should be enough.”
When I returned to the front of the store, I found Rue fast asleep under one of the clothing displays, his enormous body curled up like a pile of fur. He probably still hadn’t finished digesting all the food from two days ago.
After the long hours with Adi, I didn’t feel like trading in the bazaar anymore, so Rue and I headed back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the day in the suite—me with a book and Rue dozing peacefully with his head on my lap and occasionally demanding ear scratches.
The next day, I didn’t feel like returning to the bazaar. I preferred to wait for Adi and the decision of his supporter. Instead, Rue and I went for a walk around the city. We visited several food plazas, and my furry companion, having finally finished digesting the crazy meal from three days ago, was back to his usual self, begging for food with those adorable big eyes and twitching ears.
I couldn’t resist and bought him treats while I grabbed various spices, fruits, and vegetables to experiment with later.
Besides the food plazas, we also visited plazas with live shows. One performance by a dance troupe stood out, featuring twenty dancers who told the story of five adventurers through dance. Their exaggerated movements and acrobatic feats brought their battle against monsters to life—it was mesmerizing.
They had five musicians, four with string instruments and one with drums resembling bongo drums but bigger, hanging on his waist. Some dancers portrayed the side of the monsters, using exaggerated movements to mimic the monsters’ fear. That gave me an idea. It was lucky I’d recently gone through the Vegas inventory list, or I might not have remembered it.
After they finished performing and collecting their coins, I approached the man who seemed in charge, judging by how loudly he shouted at the dancers to prepare for the next show.
“Excuse me, sir,” I called out, catching his attention. “I’m a merchant and have some items that might interest your dancers. Would you like to take a look?”
He narrowed his eyes, curious. “What things?”
I pulled out a medieval knight armor replica and a dinosaur costume from my storage. One dancer, who had been watching, shrieked when he saw the dinosaur costume.
“Do such monsters exist?! Where?!” He asked, face pale with fear.
I waved my hands quickly. “No, no, relax. It’s just a costume, an invention by the person who made it.”
He and the other dancers breathed a sigh of relief, some visibly sagging as if they were about to pass out from the shock.
After a brief negotiation, I sold them three armor replicas and all the dinosaur costumes—46 more gold in my pocket and a bit more Storage space.
Life is good!
We also caught several performances by bards, some singing songs and others reciting stories in rhythmic poetry. Jugglers and acrobats showed off their skills, tossing wild objects into the air or building five-people-high human towers. I was sure they’d be a sensation if these acts came to Vegas. No circus on Earth could pull off such intense, high-flying stunts.
We returned to the suite in the evening, and I finally checked out the bathhouse. The bathhouse was behind the hotel’s spire, inside a low square structure divided into two wings—one for women, one for men. Inside were stations to soap up and rinse off, followed by soaking pools with various temperatures. I found one with medium heat and lay down to relax. The Clean spell was great, but nothing compared to the soothing feel of water.
After two hours in the bathhouse, I returned to the room to find Rue and Rid in the middle of a game of checkers. Smiling, I petted Rue, handed Rid another coin—he earned it, he was doing a fantastic job—and went to bed, feeling utterly relaxed.
When I arrived at Adi’s the next day, an elderly man stood there. Despite wearing rather plain clothes compared to the nobles I’d seen, I was sure he was one of them. One look into his eyes told me all I needed to know—he was Adi’s supporter, and this negotiation would be tough. His eyes gleamed with the sharpness of a cunning, experienced fox who had seen and heard everything.
He studied me for a few seconds before asking, “Are you the merchant who sells special goods to Adi?”
“Yes?”
“He told me you’re also a wizard. How did you manage that?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, frowning slightly.
“In all my years, I’ve met no more than twenty people with a second class, and they were all quite proficient and much older before they achieved it. You look too young. How did you manage to get a second class?”
I shrugged, trying to keep my tone casual. “I’m a wizard, and I wanted to travel the world and learn about magic and mana. Before I set off, I sold my house. Knowing the money would run out eventually, instead of spending it all on living expenses, I bought interesting goods from my hometown and sold them elsewhere. That’s how I continued to buy and sell, financing my journey. Surprisingly, the Guidance offered me the Merchant’s class a few years later.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment, then asked, “I’ve also heard you have a giant black wolf as a familiar. How did that come about?”
“I’m from a wizard family,” I explained. “My familiar comes from the forests of my home continent. My father helped me prime and bind him before I left on my journey so he would protect me.”
“You primed and bound it yourself?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “In the old way, not with a scroll? How did you even know the old way? I thought that knowledge was lost.”
Oops.
“Like I said, I’m from a wizard family,” I replied quickly. “My family managed to preserve some ancient knowledge and pass it down through the generations.”
“Come with me, please,” he said, leading me into a back room I hadn’t visited before.
The room was smaller than the one with the enormous table, but it had comfortable sofas and armchairs around two low tables. Adi entered and placed a pot of tea and a plate of cookies on the table. He exchanged a look with my new host, and I got the distinct feeling they were communicating without words.
In the meantime, I used Identify. Yey, me!
Marquess Alistor Varence Damarion Fusil of Crystalspire
Comptroller of Estates Level 26
Adi left the room, and Alistor turned back to me. “I have a proposition for you,” he said, his tone serious.
“Yes?”
“Draw me the magic circle needed to bind a familiar, with an exact explanation of the priming and binding process and any other related details. In return, Adi will buy all the goods you offer at your asking price without argument, and I will personally pay you one thousand gold.”
“Three thousand,” I countered immediately, surprising even myself. The words slipped out automatically, like instinct.
He regarded me, scratching his cheek. “Is it true that, in the old way, the familiar gains a mirror power center like its master, not just the ability to level?”
“Yes.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Three thousand. But,” he lifted a finger to stop me and began counting on his fingers, “You will swear to a Truth Mage the following:
1. The familiar will gain a power center like its master.
2. The information is complete and not missing anything.
3. The magic circle is complete and works.”
“Of course,” I nodded, keeping my expression neutral.
“Do you have more interesting things that you didn’t show Adi?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.
“Yes.”
“Such as?” he prompted.
“I have silver jewelry with sapphires, jewelry that looks expensive but is made with simple metals and polished glass, hair accessories, brushes, and other tools for applying face paint, unique soaps for body and hair with pleasant scents, and a few other items.”
“Show me examples,” he ordered.
I showed him examples of everything.
“Adi told me you give him a 20% discount,” he remarked.
I nodded.
He gestured to a guard standing nearby. “This is Osun. He will stay here and pay you when Adi chooses everything he wants. When you arrive at my estate to deliver the information about familiars, you will swear to the Truth Mage that you gave Adi a 20% discount.”
“No problem,” I agreed.
“How long do you need to prepare the information?”
“A day,” I replied confidently.
He handed me a page with an address and a seal. “Show this to the guards at the entrance to the new noble quarter. Without it, you won’t be able to get in. Come to my spire tomorrow evening.”
He stood up, murmured to Osun, and gave him something. Then turned back to me. “Our business is complete. I expect to see you tomorrow evening after sunset.”
After Alistor left, I moved into the other back room with Adi. First, I pulled out all the boxes and crates of the items I had already shown him, along with the exact list of prices we had prepared earlier. Then, I moved on to showing him the other goods; honestly, he was hilarious. He started vibrating excitedly, and his shaking only worsened as we progressed.
When we reached the costume jewelry, he began bouncing on his feet, practically unable to contain himself. When I showed him the hair accessories, shampoo, body soap, and lotion, he added applause to the mix, clapping his hands enthusiastically.
I glanced at Osun, and he was pressing his fist to his mouth. I thought he might be biting it. By this point, Adi looked like a cartoon character—vibrating, bouncing, clapping, and occasionally squealing, adding his own bizarre sound effects to the scene.
It took most of the day to go through all the items that caught Adi’s interest. He also bought some colorful fabrics I had picked up in China and some from Vegas. The final bill reached 6,739 gold. Osun gulped, but with a quick hand motion, two wooden boxes filled with gold coins appeared on the table.
“Each box has three thousand gold. You can trust Lord Damarion Fusil, but you can count if you want,” he said. He made another motion, and seven large pouches appeared on the table. “Each of these has a hundred gold,” he added, then another 39 coins appeared on the table. “If you want to count, I’ll wait.”
“No, it’s fine,” I replied. “I trust the Lord.”
And my Sense Honesty, I added silently to myself.
As soon as the money appeared on the table, my red light started flashing.
Yes!
I held back, resisting the urge to check the message right away.
I thanked Osun again and chatted a little more with Adi. After I stepped outside, I finally checked the red light, even though I already knew what it would say.
Level up
+3 Wisdom, +3 Perception, +2 Luck, +3 Free Points
Profession: Merchant Level 9
In one more level, I’d finally discover the inventory Lis was talking about.
I added the free points to Agility—it was my lowest stat—and resisted the urge to vibrate, bounce, and clap like Adi. But after a glance around to make sure I was alone, I did a little butt wiggle—a celebration was in order.