When I chose to be a merchant the words game over did not cross my mind but now as I look at the market rates I am having my doubts

Weak health potion (132%)

Lesser Health potion (178%)

Lesser Mana potion (143%)

Apples (124%)

Brandy (167%)

Raw Rabbit meat (57%)

Leather (67%)

The game has lunched less than 24 hour ago and the market rates have already been pushed to extremes by the horde of players selling and buying without a care to poor merchant apprentices like me and as low a level as I am (lvl 0) I cannot leave the city and trade with other places and with the way the fields outside the city I probably won’t get a single kill and to make things worse if I don’t finish this quest in the time limit I won’t have a second chance

*A golden opportunity*

Merchant guild mediator Tristan have asked you to show your capability as a merchant by turning a single silver coin to a golden one

Quest requirement: class quest

Reward: gain relation with the merchant guild

Time left: 19 hours 32 minutes

I have already seen others give up or invest real world money to buy silver from other players. And since even a single silver coin would be a rare site this early on in the game I cannot afford to use that method and as a merchant apprentice I did not have access to haggling skill not that it would be any useful with the market rates this extreme

All I had was accounts

Accounts (max lvl)

Market rates can be seen

Oh it was a useful skill that gave a merchant a huge advantage when trading

But currently it’s useless to me.

I sat near the fountain in the square to think about my current situation

I have one silver and I need to turn it to one gold coin that’s 10x the value

The prices of Things like potions food are above 150% so I cannot make a profit by reselling them on the other hand prices of raw materials like rabbit meat and skin are plummeting and they will keep going down in the near future so buying them will only lead to a loss

Looking around I saw were most of the players are and I got an idea for the next 10 minutes I went around the shops and checked the market rates again just to confirm my theory

I then went and bought health potions with all my money for 180% since the market rates rose once more I got 11 bottles of lesser health potions and a single copper coin left it should’ve gotten me 20 bottles since the original price is 5 coppers. The inflation was insane

I sat opposite of an item shop and displayed my health potions for 10 coins each (200%of original price) obviously no one bought any there were many shops that sold potions and it’s not like there was a waiting line so I just sat and started thinking about other options.

Soon the average level of players will rise and they will try to get new equipments better potions and when they are bored of butchering low level mobs the prices of food and drinks will soar like it does in every holiday.

While I contemplated on what to do a voice called to me

-hello

I looked up and there was a girl smiling down at me

-I would like to buy some potions please

-sure

I said that while looking at the time twenty minutes have already passed surely the prices haven’t rose this fast

-but umm can you give me a discount

She said that with a shameless smile

-I am sorry but I cannot afford to lower the prices

Your feminine charm will not work here I am afraid

-fine then I will take 3 potions please

She said that with a frown and left. After her a warrior came and bought five and the two archers after that bought the rest

I bought these potions for 9 coins (180%) and sold them for 10 (200%) so I made 11 coppers in a half an hour

I sighed at my meager profit margin

How am I going to feed my children this way I said to myself while I walked to the nearest item shop there was something odd that I needed to confirm?

When I looked at the potion price it rose 2% in ten minutes but in half an hour I managed to sell them for 20% more

Looking at the markets rates again confirmed my doubts

Lesser health potion (212%)

It has rose by 32% in half an hour

Looking around the town square has shown me why. it seems like every merchant apprentice in town had the same idea and they are buying potions from the item shop and reselling them to the players and it seems like they pushed the prices even higher

It seems that this method will make even less profits now not that it had made much to start with so I left and again I walked around the city looking for another way to make money

Soon the average level of players will rise and the price of lesser potions will fall in exchange for better potions rise as demand change and those idiots will lose their investment

Maybe I should buy better potions and stock them until their price rises but looking at the price of a weak potion changed my mind

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Weak heath potion (100%) 30 coppers

30 coppers that means 3 bottles for a long time investment

No it will take too long and will not yield much profit

Looking again around the market I noticed that on the other hand the prices of rabbit meat and leather have kept falling

Raw rabbit meat (48%)

Rabbit pelt (53%)

If I am correct and things keep going in the same direction then prices of food armors and weapons will rise too at first I thought of getting a production skill like cooking and tanning but I found that will be quite hard when the skill and tools cost no less than 5 silver coins

Then another thought came to me as I started walking away from the main square

I may not have the funds to manipulate the market rates but others do all I needed to do is guide them into that endeavor

The game has been up for several hours several players had moved on into stronger monsters and the competition to buy from them is insane

And soon most players will move on from rabbits and the supply will almost stop

All that is left is to empty the market from the current

I walked around the town and offered every merchant to buy all the pelts that he can get for 3 coppers which is 25% more than the current rate thankfully only few had pelts or this wouldn’t work but I did spend most of my money and bought 36 pelts

Few people gave me suspicious looks but most of them were too tempted by my offer to think it through

Once I was done I entered a small shop and already the market rates had changed a lot

Rabbit pelts (87%)

I waited for five minutes before selling for 118%

I sold my pelts for 169 coppers

I had now 172 coppers to spend I went to three merchants that I went to early on and hoped that they didn’t notice the rise in the market rates and bought all the pelts that they had for 3 coppers (75%) I got 57 pelts and had one copper left

I managed to sell them for 138%

314 coppers of profit

I walked around the city again and bought from merchants that didn’t know that the prices rose and apologized to others telling them I can’t afford the price they offered

And they couldn’t disagree since I offered to buy for 75% but for some reason the prices rose sharply

I did end up with 105 pelts

Back at the shop the sudden rise in price has subsided at 172% and I managed to sell my pelts for 600 copper coins

I doubted that I would find anyone still willing to sell for 75% but I did look around and I did find a two who didn’t go to a shop in a while and got 25 pelts from them and I sold them for 67 coins of profit I had now 6 silver coins and 67 coppers

For now I wanted to play it safe

I went and bought cooking tools and a recipe for rabbit meat

The sun was setting now and it was the perfect time for a food stall I bought meat souse Salt and pepper with the rest of my money

I started grilling the meat as people started crowding around

The first patch wasn’t very great so I sold it for 15 coppers

After three more patches I got the cooking skill

*Cooking (lvl 1) :

as your culinary skill rises the food that u make tastes better and more refined

For being the first to acquire the cooking skill in the server you have gained a title

Fame +50

All stats +1

*The first chief:

the way of to a chief is a long one and those who begin it earlier will have a head start

Charm +5

Ding

You have unlocked a unique stat

Charm: interactions with npc’s become easier

Fame stats and and a new stat this is too good. my money is already well spent even if I don’t make profit

the taste of the food I made became much better and since I was the only one making food currently I managed to keep raising the price until in no time I had made more than a gold coin

After the line has ended and the last player left I walked to the merchant guild and paid my due

-well done I didn’t expect you to return so early here is your merchant badge

Ding

Would you like to change your class to a specialized merchant once you do you may learn class only skills

Yes| no

I tapped the yes button as fast as I could

Ding

For being the first to acquire a merchant class variant in the server you have gained a new title

Fame +50

All stats +1

Ding

You have acquired a new skill

Haggling (lvl1):

Prices of goods can be negotiated easier and more favorably with npc’s

Ding

You have acquired a new skill

Appraisal (lvl1): appraisal of items can be made to detect their true value

Ding

Escape (lvl1): when targeted by enemies speed is increased by 50%

-Jackpot

Haggling is god send for a merchant appraisal will be very valuable as well and

escape is insanely good