A stray strand of her brown hair danced with the gentle breeze, and the sun’s warmth comforted her. Vel was relaxed in a daze as the sun rose to its highest point. She didn’t think too much about the thing that had hatched from an egg. Surprisingly, her battle against a god hadn't occupied her thoughts at all. All she thought about was how calm and peaceful this world was. She had found a spot that was quite comfortable and was pretty content with staying there for a little while longer.

Unfortunately for her, her peace would be cut short by the arrival of some sort of humanoid silver boar in the distance. The boar appeared out of a portal and was pulling along a cart. “What the? Is that some sort of dimensional hopping person? Perhaps a costume of some kind?” Vel muttered as she looked at the silver boar and was befuddled by it. The costume is certainly unique looking. The silver boar’s head turned to look at Vel. It simply just blankly stared at Vel. “Can I help you?” Vel called out to the boar. Vel didn’t detect any bloodlust or hostility from the boar. Neither did she sense any mana coming from them. There was a decent amount of distance between them so Vel decided to call out to them once again. However, before she could speak the boar’s mask was in front of her face. I didn’t even see them move. I couldn’t feel any mana from them either. Vel’s alarm bells were going off and she tensed up and prepared herself for battle.

“Helllo~ I am the super amazing, and beautiful, traveling merchant Aria! Would you like to purchase something? I accept all forms of currency no matter the dimensional origin. Please buy something as I am currently broke.” Aria expressed with a high amount of energy and muttered that last part. When Vel didn’t seem convinced, Aria raised her hands into the air, went down onto her knees, and prostrated herself. “Please buy something!” Aria begged. Vel was completely dumbfounded; her fear and worry were replaced by confusion.

“Let me look at what you have first.” She got up from her comfortable spot and walked over to the cart. Which had been left behind.

“Thank you so much!” Aria jumped up into a standing position and began walking with Vel. Aria continued to walk alongside her and once they made it to the cart, she asked: “Please step inside, dear customer,” and opened the door to the cart. The cart wasn’t massive looking on the outside, but the inside was a completely different story. From weapons of all types to medical supplies to toys, it was full of almost anything one could think of. Nothing was on the floor, but the shelves were cluttered, and there were bins of trinkets thrown in haphazardly. Vel walked through the aisles while Aria sat at the checkout counter, expertly playing with a Kendama toy while keeping an eye on Vel. "Let me know if you need anything," Aria called out, without messing up or slowing down on the Kendama toy.

“I wonder where she got all this stuff from? Maybe she burned all her money buying these goods but wasn’t able to sell them. I can’t imagine having a stable customer base as a traveling merchant and with that costume as the mascot. Perhaps I should ask her about it later.” Vel browsed the store, and the further she went back. The higher the quality of the goods became. While perusing the store something caught her eye. It was a piece of clothing. However, it was giving off magical power. It was a five-piece outfit with a white undershirt, a beige button-up with a brown cloak attached, leather fingerless gloves, black pants, and brown boots. Upon further inspection, Vel noticed that the materials were of very high quality. “I’m not sure what these are made of, but I can tell it must’ve been expensive. I guess I’ll get this, other clothes, and some more undergarments. Especially given how high-quality everything is.” Vel said, getting all the stuff she needed and piling them onto the counter. “I’d like to purchase these, how much will they cost?” Vel asked Aria who was seemingly very focused on Vel.

“Which currency would you like to use? The one of the current world or perhaps a different one?” Aria, still in her mascot costume asked. Vel thought about which to use and decided on the ones from the world of the cloud seas. She grabbed a gold coin from her pocket dimension and showed it off to Aria. “This coin’s gold purity level is very high. How about 15 of these gold coins for all of it?” Aria responded. Vel was a little shocked because she had loads of those coins to spare from when she raided the treasure room. She pulled fifteen of the coins and stacked them on the counter. Aria was intently looking at the coins with a passionate gaze. “THANK YOU SO MUCH, dear customer!” Aria happily said.

“While browsing the store I became curious about something. How did you get to be so broke? Most of the goods in this store are made with high-quality materials. Even your mascot costume is pretty high quality, at least the materials are. Did you burn all your money supplies?” Vel asked Aria. She could sense magical energy exuding from the costume but nothing from Aria herself.

“This mascot is my magnum opus, it’s the most adorable thing ever. As for the money issue, that's because.” Aria paused for a moment. “Well since you are a precious customer I guess I can tell you. It’s because…my luck is pretty bad while gambling.” Aria hit herself on the head softly, winked, and stuck her tongue out. However, to Vel, she could only see the mascot’s unchanging face hitting itself.

“For a moment, I was feeling bad for you. Like maybe you needed a lot of money to get out of a bad situation or something like that. But instead, you are just a gambler, oh well at least the goods you sell are high quality. If you didn’t buy the supplies, how did you get so much?” Vel’s curiosity remained.

“I made them all myself. I also collected all the materials myself while traveling to different dimensions.” Aria casually stated. This answer surprised Vel because of the few materials she believed to recognize. They were made from the hides of very tough creatures. Although Vel could kill the ones she recognized she wouldn’t be able to leave the materials in good condition.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“If you made all of these goods yourself, couldn’t you just make goods that people in the dimension you are in actually want and sell to them,” Vel explained. She couldn’t see it, but she felt Aria’s jaw drop inside of the costume.

“Are you a genius or something? That’s a killer idea.” Aria was genuinely surprised by this information. Her genuine surprise baffled Vel. How does she own a store without understanding supply and demand? Is she just an airhead or something? I guess she does have the strength to survive given how she must’ve cleanly hunted her materials.

“Well, anyways thank you for the goods. If I see you again, I’ll definitely buy something again.” Vel said as she sent the pile of clothes into her pocket dimension.

“Thank you for your purchase, my dear customer,” Aria responded.

"You know, I'm rather curious how you thought that I would have a different currency from this world," Vel asked Aria.

Aria thought for a moment before saying: "Let's just say it was a hunch." Aria smiled underneath her mask.

"I see. I also was curious about that costume that you wear. Why does it look like that?" Vel asked, attempting to satiate her curiosity.

"Being super cute right? I believed that it would make me look friendlier to customers. I mean, who doesn't love a cute animal mascot? I even made pins, shirts, and even a hat." Aria excitedly showed off her collection of silver boar-themed merchandise. The two continued to chat for a bit before Vel began to head out.

As Vel was walking out, she heard Aria say one more thing: “See you later Vel!”

“See you later!” Vel said as she walked out, and once she was off the stairs the cart disappeared into thin air. Wait a second I don’t remember telling her my name. Vel stopped for a moment but then shrugged it off.

In Aria’s shop, she was finally alone. “I cut it rather close, didn’t I? Some clients for my side gig are about to show up.” Aria unzipped the back of her mascot costume. She quickly changed into her work attire. Aria’s hair was long and silver-colored with blue inner hair. That was tied into a twin low ponytail. Her eyes were a deep sapphire blue, and her skin was a pale ivory color. She wore a black knitted v-neck one-piece long-sleeve dress with a black embroidered cloak attached to the top. To complete the outfit she wore black cargo pants, black boots, and a masquerade mask. In addition to her outfit, she fitted herself with a weapon belt and a concealed thigh knife holster. Unlike the personality she showed to Vel, she was serious when her client broker came in.

The broker was an adult woman with long two-toned hair, her bangs were white while her back hairs were black. She had dark brown eyes, and fair skin, and wore a black business suit. She has known Aria for a long time. “Ma’am here is a list and the folders of all your current targets this month.” The broker handed Aria a written list and a group of folders and manifested a seat made of a solidified shadow.

“Let’s see, the first one on the list is a demonic lord, next is an influential political leader, and finally a demi-god. The rest won’t take any time at all. Only a select few can specifically request me, so I’m rather surprised there are so many this month.” Aria sighed as she perused the list of targets.

Somewhere else in another dimension, Vel was walking around a massive forest. She wore the travel outfit that she had purchased at Aria’s shop. The trees exuded high amounts of magical energy. The wildlife was similar to her world, but they were much bigger, both in size and their fangs. Take for example a bunny. They are typically little with small teeth. Here, however, their equivalents were the size of a small boulder and their fangs were the size of an adult human’s fist. “Seems like the magical energy has mutated the lifeforms around this area. I wonder if it was always like this or if it was due to interference by a powerful entity. I’ve been to quite a few worlds at this point, but I’ve only encountered a few. I wonder if some aren’t able to manifest in the mortal plane despite being a god? Not like I can really know unless one tells me. I hope that I won’t have a hostile relationship with every god I meet. I’d like to not fight every single time I meet one. Frankly, I am not sure about the potential consequences of killing one. There was that bizarre encounter in that controlled paradise world. After a god dies, will they be reborn?” Vel ranted and sighed. Vel continued through the forest and killed anything that approached her with a wind barrier. The corpses that were left behind were consumed by other animals in the forest. Soon enough, the animals figured out that Vel was too dangerous to attack and left her alone. She saw a tree that was massive in comparison to the rest of the trees. It stood alone in a clearing. She did not sense any magical energy coming from it, so she paid it no mind and continued walking.

The moon had risen and Vel was still walking in the seemingly endless forest of dangers. She glanced up and gazed at the singular moon. The light of the moon shined upon the world brightly, yet there was one spot where it shined the most. She could see a path of moonlight beaming onto the large tree she neglected earlier. Using her wind magic, she flew towards the tree that was being touched by the moonlight. She stared at the tree and wondered if a hidden path would open up or something. Nothing seemed to happen, but her adventure instincts were telling her there was something. She approached the tree and leapt upward and jumped from branch to branch before making it to the top of the tree. At the top of the tree, were branches full of leaves, but also a central area that shouldn’t be there. She leaped from one of the tree branches and landed directly in the middle of the area. She stood in the center and looked around from her spot. There were markings on the floor beneath her. She was not sure what they were depicting. “If nothing else, this small area is kind of cool to just be here.” She commented as she continued to look around.

At first, it was an empty area with nothing of note. However, once the moon’s light touched the platform, branches cleared away to form an opening. It seemed to have created a path of moonlight. Vel attempted to step on the newly formed path and was surprised when it held her up. “Interesting, seems like my instincts were right,” Vel muttered and began to walk on the path made of moonlight. As she went higher along the path the world around her began to distort and she realized she was heading to somewhere unknown. She glanced backward and the path exit was gone, it was replaced by an endless void. She had no choice but to continue forward up the path. In the distance, there was a giant tree. That was seemingly identical to the tree she had climbed to reach the path of moonlight. Now that she had a destination in sight, she increased her pace. It did not take long before she stood before the tree. On the outside, the tree appeared identical to the other tree, but on the inside, she felt a large amount of magical energy. This tree looks the same as the one in the other world, but it’s very different. Vel continued to stare at the great tree as there was nothing else around.