Chapter 105: [Arc 3] Chapter 2: Shop till you Drop

After giving Alvatria the choco-tribute, we had hurried towards the mountains... before we needed to stop to make an early dinner since we skipped past the lunch. Which turned out to be quite the feast thanks to Marc.

"To think that just with some seasoning from the other world would produce such a result." - Mira

"More! More! More!" - Lily

"Fine, fine. More's on the way." - Marc

Today's lunch was grilled horn rabbit skewers, seasoned with seasonings obtained from the [Dimension Merchant]. The grill was something I bought from the blacksmith in Velantas, and it's honestly nothing more than a metal grid placed over the campfire. 

Marc was the one doing the grilling, now dressed in a forest green shirt and brown pants. The clothes were stuff I had bought in Velantas with the plans of using them alongside my transformation abilities, in case I needed to shake off some people inside a populated area, Marc's a better cook than the rest of us, but it's not on the level of a real chef. I miss Terd's food...

Over the dinner, we told Marc more about Terra Sol, including the capital of the Yanxiong, which was our current destination and closest city from our current location.

"Uhm, do I really not have to pay you back for all your help?" - Marc

"Sure. Just lay back and enjoy the trip. It could be that Alvatria sent you to that forest in the first place, so I have some shared responsibility here." - Garami

 "No, you don't need to feel-" - Marc

"Yes, I do. Do you think I can sleep soundly when knowing that someone's in trouble cause of that goddess? Believe me, I'm more experienced with her than you." - Garami

"What Garami says is that she feels bad for you and wants to be of help." - Lily

Oi, Lily! That's unnecessary-!

"And you don't have anything to pay us back with anyway, so just accept Garami's goodwill, even if it's just her blaming herself. Let me tell you, her doing anything for free is close to a miracle." - Mira

Alright, maybe I should bust her lewd nature one of these days.

"If you're that troubled by it, why not pay us back by joining our Guild?" - Lily

"Eh? You said something like that before, but is it really alright...?" - Marc

Nice work Lily! This was just the excuse I needed!

"Why not? All our members are meatheads, so we could need someone that can do the accounts for us. That's right up your ally, and you will have a stable workplace. You can even use that skill of yours when we need some more items. Good for you, good for us, good for everyone." - Garami

"? How do you know that he's good with numbers?" - Mira

Oh, crap! I made that assumption based on Marc's suit, but people on Terra Sol don't have them!

"She's not wrong. I was something that could be called an office worker, so I can handle some finances." - Marc

"S-see? I knew he was something like that. You can't do any heavy lifting in the clothes he wore before, so I figured it was something like that." - Garami

"Hmm. If you say so." - Mira

Safe! It was close, but I'm safe! Barely. And I got a Unique Skill user on the team! Yahoo!

---

All the dishes were cleaned and we were ready to go. However,

"No way! I'm too stuffed. Need. Rest." - Lily

"What she said. And if you are anxious about that goddess, we just need to fill her with more of those sweets. The cheap ones only cost 50 sol. Just give her some of them." - Mira

That's... true. But to think that Mira, the most money-grubbing of us all, would suggest using it to fend her off. 

"Mira, are you sick? Wanna lay down?" - Lily

"You asking for a beating? That's the only way to save the largest amount of money. If you're targeted by a god, it's better to give up resisting and rather find a way to lose as little as possible." - Mira

Nothing we can do about that. I'm the one with the most experience with gods, so I understand that Mira's in the right here. But having to give that goddess tribute each time will turn become a real gold sink, no, a real sol sink.

"Ehm, mind if I ask, but what's all this talk about a goddess?" - Marc

"Didn't I tell you? One of the top gods of this world is what you could consider my sponsor. Not that she acts so divine most of the time, like how she was begging for the chocolate earlier. If I was a split sec slower, you would have gotten a so-called 'blessing' from her and had to work to the bone to express your 'gratitude' to her, unless you wanted to be cursed into a freak." - Garami

"...What the heck's that?! Scary!" - Marc

Well said, young Migrant. I let Mira and Lily take over the explanation about the gods and blessings of this world while I was checking out the [Dimension Merchant] window that was still open from when we ordered the seasonings and vegetables.

The merchandise available is determined by the racial elements of the skill user and their family, was it? Then being a kin is enough of a connection for this thing. Since Marc has a connection to me now, and I have a connection to Mira of Water, Lily of Chaos, Carion of Earth, and Levi of Death, it meant that their racial elements were also counted.

I looked over the stuff that Marc can buy at the moment. On the water section, tons of different beverages came up. But they are all stuff found in this world, but they are priced fairly, so who cares? There are no potions though. Other stuff includes fishing rods, nets, and a gutting knife for fish, just to mention a few items. And the swimsuits are treated as equipment? You gotta be joking... wait a sec...

"Hey, I think I noticed something important here." - Garami

"What's up?" - Mira

The three of them were in the middle of the lesson, but I stopped them anyway. This is too important to not mention at once.

"The items we can buy here, they're all rank E or below." - Garami

The variety of merchandise was so large, we didn't notice it at first, but when I looked over them again, I noticed this when I looked at the swimsuit-equipment, which all had their ranks and effects listed up. And to finish the whole thing was that there were no Skill Scrolls in the Darkness section of the site, I mean, the skill. They're all from rank D and above after all.

"What, that's it? Too weak." - Mira

"That's too soon to say. The skill's only at LV1, so the better goods may come with a higher level." - Garami

"Ehm, could I ask what 'ranks' and 'levels' mean?" - Marc

"Ah, sorry again. To say it simply, levels can be divided into three types, ones personal level which is the amount of the aether-type known as EXP you have, skill levels that show how much proficiency you have with the skill, and class levels are the same as skill levels, only with classes." - Garami

"Ranks are as the name says rankings of items and monsters. The higher aether that item or monster has at an average, the higher the rank. The ranks go from the lowest of rank G to the highest that's rank A. There is also a special rank S, but that's given to living disasters, so don't think too much on that. Just run away like a madman in case you see anything like that.

"There's also possible for the ranks to have a + or - attached. + means that the item or monster has a distinct advantage that makes them practically one rank higher in certain situations, while - is the opposite. They have a fatal weakness that makes them weaker than others of the same rank." - Mira

"Okay?" was Marc's only response to our explanation. 

"Well, the most important thing to remember is that the skills become better the more you use them. Don't stress and take things one step at a time." - Garami

"No way he should do that! Make that thing produce meat right now!" - Lily

"Meat? You want an other-world beef that bad?" - Garami

"Not that! Wasn't this thing supposed to offer monster parts? Then why's there no meat on the menu?! There's only bones and feathers here!" - Lily

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"It is?" said Mira, and started to look over the Chaos section.

"She's right. There's only stuff like horns, skins, fangs, anything except for the meat. And it's all from monsters ranked F or below." - Mira

"Hmm, so the monster materials are one rank lower than the rest? Or will the rank of available monster materials increase when we reach the point where the other goods' rank can't go higher?" - Garami

"Then, shall I buy more stuff then? What about the money?" - Marc

"Leave the money problems to me. Now then, first I want... before we start, is the proficiency gained based on the number of goods, the money used, or the number of sales?" - Garami

I asked the question that suddenly appeared in my head, only to be met with silence. Damn, Unique skills are all difficult to tame.

---

After 96 more purchases, we found out that the skill gains proficiency based on the money used in total, as it reached LV2 after we had used around 50.000 sols, meaning 5 golds. 

"AAAARGH! I can't believe this!" - Mira

That doesn't mean all the stuff we bought was any good. Except for the other-world stuff, all the items we got were of low quality. The skins looked like an amateur had skinned them, the ores were of bad quality, and the equipment was the same. In short, shabby. It would be better to just collect the materials ourselves, or buy the equipment from some crafters. The only thing that didn't suffer from this was the stuff we got from Marc's world.

"We paid tons of cash, and this is what we get?! How the heck's this thing supposed to be a Unique Skill?!" - Mira

"Mira scares me. *Shiver*, *shiver*" - Lily

"Calm down already. The 'Unique' in Unique Skill means it's capable of feats that can't be done with any other skills. And getting stuff from anywhere by paying with sols, even stuff from another world, sounds like the perfect skill to be crowned 'unique'. Now calm down. You're frightening everyone, you sprite of greed." - Garami

"And what's wrong with that?!" - Mira

"Nothing, unless it's on the level of being willing of selling their own body for some dough." - Garami

"EEEEEH!?" - Lily & Marc

"I-idiot! Don't say that out loud!" - Mira

Got her. And you were the one who told me that without any hesitation. Don't turn embarrassed when someone else says it out loud.

"And the money wasn't wasted. The new level got us more merchandise to choose from. Did you get something else from the level up Marc? Marc?" - Garami

"...What! What did you say?" - Marc

"...Did Mira just crush your dream?" - Garami

"NO, no, of course not... maybe a little." - Marc

I understand. I understand your pain so well. I was also disillusioned when I saw Mira's true personality for the first time. The shock must be worse for him who's just arrived, but let this be a life lesson of some sort. Not sure what.

Anyway, the [Dimension Merchant] got an ability called "Local Discount". It reduces the price of items that can be found in the local area. Like materials from the mantis from before. The one I made sashimi of.

Also, Marc can now buy rank D items, plus materials from rank E monsters. There was an increase of items in the Order-section, despite the other-world stuff not being ranked. One of them caught my attention, but I'll come back to that later.

The new stuff was of bad quality, but the items we could already buy had their quality improved. If I had to say, the materials were 50% of the top quality when we gather them, but now they are around 90-to-95. Again, the other-world stuff wasn't affected by this.

So, with each level up, there's a chance to buy more items, the stuff that was already for sale gets improved, or something else happens? Hope so. I wanna see if a gaming device gets put on sale. With a solar charger.

"Anyway, what do you guys say to have Marc register in both the Adventurers Guild and the Merchant Guild?" - Garami

"You can enter both?" - Marc

"Sure you can. Some guys hunt monsters to then sell the meat in their own shops, so why can't we get a license to sell the stuff that the Adventurers Guild doesn't want? Also, there is something I wanna sell to the Merchant Guild." - Garami

I made Marc open the window again and found the item I had in mind.

"...Paper?" - Marc

"Paper. Better said, plant-based, high-quality papers that cost only 2 silvers for a stack of 100." - Garami

"A hundred?! You need to pay 10 silvers for a single sheet of that type of paper!" - Mira

"That's too cheap! What's the catch?" - Lily

They both looked at Marc, the guy who came from the same world as the paper.

"I-I don't know. Are you not able to make paper in this world?" - Marc

"It's possible since other Migrants have introduced the technology, but that doesn't make it easier to harvest trees and plants that can be used for paper en masse. Forest has monsters in them, and magically grown trees are most of the time unusable for paper making." - Garami

It was something I checked on when I noticed that most of the books in the Adventurers Guild was made of leather instead of paper, The Merchant Guild will love to get some real paper, even if it's only for their personal use.

"See? If we said we got it from some random merchant on our way to town, we can sell it in town without people being suspicious of Marc. However, we can't use this strategy too many times. If we want to use it again, we need something different to sell the next time, and it should be in a different city as well. Also, we need to investigate the buyer before even thinking of selling. Got it?" - Garami

"Roger!" - Lily

"It's fine with me, as long as we don't end up in troubles." - Marc

"A thousand silvers... ten golds..." - Mira

*Smack*

"Ouch! I get it, I get it already!" - Mira

"Hope so. Then, to the next subject, on what means of self-defense that Marc should learn." - Garami

"Huh?" was the answer from all three. Jeez, these guys...

"Don't you remember that we're traveling adventurers? We need to have this guy being able to defend himself in case of an emergency. I'm not saying he should become a warrior that can slay dragons in one hit, only on the level of staying safe if he's faced against some weaker monsters." - Garami

Or thugs rented by guys that want the secret of the goods we sell, bad guys that just don't fancy us, or the Balos gang...

We started a debate over what Marc could do, which resulted in a serious no to any warrior-related classes. I can't see this guy slashing monsters as Mira or Galleth does. Strictly speaking, he should learn some magician classes, since he has some talent with it and all. That, or have him stock up on items that let him escape in a pinch. The only thing that we managed to get to an agreement on, was that he should pick the Merchant class as a sub class rather than anything else. 

We couldn't decide by then since it had already turned to night by then. And because Levi had started sulking cause I had ignored her over the dinner. I had to make it up for her with more snacks bought from the [Dimension Merchant].

Seriously, sorry. Forgive me already!

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