Apinsig
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Chapter 157 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2023-02-02 18:53:43 +0000 UTCWhile the merchant was excited before she was now dumbfounded now, but she was still an experienced merchant. “Is there anything that you don't want?” She asked me while looking around her own stall.
“Yes, any tree or berry bush that can’t survive a cold winter I will not need and then the other plant that needs more than five months of sunlight to mature produce is also out. “She looked at me a bit funny for my second limitation, but her excitement was quite palpable.
“Well, it will depend somewhat on the distribution of the different types of seeds and saplings but to fill up the backpack will approximately cost 120,000 gold coins.” When she finished saying that she winced a bit, probably thinking I would not want that much, but I smiled and said. “Perfect let's start discussing the number of different saplings and seeds that I want I just hope you have enough.” She waived the last comment off.
The number of different plants available was crazy and some stuff was evolved a bit but I decided not to pick any of those. They would have brought up the cost a lot for little benefit. I was incredibly happy when I walked away a few hours later. There were so many trees and other seeds that I have never heard of before and I couldn’t wait to grow and taste them.
I also got every important fruit that I could remember from earth. Cherry trees, walnuts, different kinds of herbs, strawberries, raspberries. Everything I had everything, and I was so happy.
After about 10 minutes I snapped out of the daze I had been in. I had just walked without any direction for 10 minutes and I think if I was younger, I might have skipped happily down the street. So many of my problems were now taken care of and I couldn’t wait until these plants were grown.
I think I can make an exception for most of these and use some of the farmers that had abilities that made things grow faster so I won’t have to wait 10 years before some of the trees should be able to produce fruit.
I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. I still had lots of monster cores I needed to use up. The backpack that I was now wearing was heavy, but it was so satisfying to wear it, so I didn't mind the weight.
Running with the backpack would be a lot more difficult now but I was up for this challenge. The backpack did need a semi-regular insert of energy to keep the enchantments working but it kept everything inside alive. It was a small price to pay but after about another hour I had finally searched the entire market.
I had two stalls that I wanted to return to and one of those sold weapons. Why this one was interesting was because it didn’t sell any weapons that had runes or enchantments on them but the prices were two or three times more than in any other shop.
I wanted to examine the weapons the first time I found the stall but there was quite a big argument with the merchant and some of the customers apparently didn’t like the prices. The second time I went there the same thing was happening but with different people.
This time it seems that I was in luck as there wasn’t anyone who was arguing with the merchant this time. I started to move towards it but before I got there on another stall was an interesting item that caught my eye. I inspected it but before I could read the message, I finally got a notification that my identification had tiered up.
I quickly looked over my choices, but I wasn’t really satisfied with any of them. I was hoping for a more active version of identify. Something that would actively work to trying to pierce any creature's innate defences and show more of their achievement page.
I ended up picking danger identifier. I didn’t have any better choices as I already could do what the other abilities offered with my other abilities or traits. The item itself wasn’t anything special but I took the opportunity to use the new ability to identify one of the weapons.
After using it the weapon kind of had an orange glow to it but it didn’t interfere with me seeing the weapon which was a good thing. I used the ability on one of the spears for sale and its tip came out as red but the shaft itself was a dark shade of green.
I did a few more tests and it seems for the current me the most dangerous weapons were the ones that could pierce. Slashing ones were also dangerous but a bit less so and blunt weapons were almost safe unless they were really heavy but even then, they didn't go past yellow.
Currently, I could only see green, yellow, and red and everything in between to identify a weapon's danger level but I would assume that something that could one-shot me would be coloured in either black or something similar. I finally moved on to the stall and started to look over the weapons that were there. I was pleasantly surprised that every weapon here seemed to be more dangerous than at the last stall.
The merchant gave me a gruff greeting but otherwise, she just continued to look around while keeping an eye on me and looking miserable. The merchant was a dwarf woman which I only knew because one of the last times I was here someone was quite loudly cursing the fact that she was a dwarf. Otherwise, it would be hard to tell because she was standing on some sort of platform behind the stall that made her seem taller.
When I picked up one of the knives, she gave me a warning look, but she didn’t say that I couldn’t examine it. It took me only a few moments to figure out why they were so expensive and I had to smile. These weapons while meant for the first rank but had incredibly good energy paths which would mean any ability used with it could be a lot stronger similar to the bows that I wanted to sell. Not everything here was made out of steel but more often out of better materials.
I would want to buy myself a two-handed sword but I was informed that I could keep the sword and the shield that I have been using in that dungeon so I wouldn’t need it. While a weapon bought here would be better it wouldn’t be by too much. The grumpy look the merchant gave me lessened with my examination and obvious excitement but I had to hope that she would like to buy as well.
“Are you finally done with the examination; you seem to be interested in the dagger.” She said before I could speak. I shook my head which made her narrow her eyes towards me. “I was hoping that perhaps you would want to buy a few bows that I have for sale. I think you would like them.” I could see her already readying to reject me, but my last words change her mind.
I took off my shoulder back that I had made that was almost as tall as me and hold all the five bows that I have brought. Before I could get any of the bows out a sudden shout took the merchant's attention.
“You lying piece of shit I spent three times more cores and you told me this weapon will last me for a long time but just after two delves it can only produce half the results and I can only put 2/3 the energy into it. It’s almost worse than some of the runed weaponry.” The small woman marched up showing a long one-sided dagger to the merchant while furiously shaking it.
At first, I could see the merchant readying for another fight with a customer but her anger switched to confusion when she heard what was being said. The two continued to argue but after the merchant tested out the weapon, she looked more confused than anyone else.
“This is weird. This shouldn’t happen. Something is wrong with the weapon that’s for sure I would exchange this one as it's clearly defective, but I don’t have any weapons that are similar to this one perhaps you would be willing to exchange it for a different type of weapon.” The merchant asked with a bit more confidence than she started with.
But before the short woman answered I spoke up. “Could I examine it? Perhaps I can find the reason why it's not working properly.” The two women stopped and looked at me with hostility, but I was more curious about how energy pathways could be destroyed or blocked. If this was something I could do during a fight it could cripple my opponent's equipment. Both women looked at me for a few seconds and both of them shrugged their shoulders and the merchant handed the weapon to me.
I examined it for a bit and had to use some of my abilities and what I found surprised me a lot. “Wow haven't seen anything like that before. Did you perhaps fight the scythe wielders and blocked their weapons with this dagger?” The small woman looked at me questioningly but gave a slight nod.
“I don’t know how this is possible but about halfway along the blade, a piece of the scythe tip is buried in it. It seems to be the piercing part of it, which is incredibly weird, but I guess it had some substance to it. Whatever ability you used on this weapon must have greatly reduced the penetrative properties of the scythe and even made it possible for a piece to be broken inside of the dagger.” When I finally looked up from my examination and explanation I found two wide-eyed women.
“Yeah, it’s weird but the part that is broken inside the weapon seems to be made out of energy so if you do not supply this weapon with any energy for let's say a week the broken piece should disappear, and your dagger should work like it’s supposed to. Although perhaps this might be beneficial with a little bit of work.” I was quite focused as I started to manipulate my energy into the piece that had broken inside the weapon.
It took me a bit of time and I had to use some of my abilities and a bit more energy than I wanted to but eventually, the dagger was enveloped with a purple hue and the weapon was extended a few inches similar to the scythe weapon in the dungeon.
I tested the weapon by hitting it into the stall and I was glad to see that it had pierced the wood but when I pulled it out there was no mark left behind. “Oh, that’s so awesome.” I looked up to see the merchant openly gawking at me and the owner of the weapon completely shell-shocked.
“Oh yeah, I got a little bit carried away there sorry about that. There would probably be some enchanter or rune carver that could make that effect into a more permanent one. You should have as much time as you want if you just keep giving the weapon energy every once in a while.” I handed the weapon back and the small woman who took it with shaking hands. It was at that time that I noticed that there was a lot more silence than I was used to and when I looked around everyone was looking towards here. Well shit, might have fucked up a bit.
I watched as the weapon owner quickly run away and then I looked towards the merchant who was still quite speechless. “Yeah, so about the bows that I wanted to sell would you take a look.” My speaking snapped her out of whatever state she was in, and she started to look over my bows. A smile came over her face and she excused herself and went to the wagon with one of the bows. She came back and I could see the look any merchant had when they knew they were about to make money.
She bargained with all her skill and even my negotiation skill levelled up towards the end, but the best bow sold for 35,000 gold. The other three for 20,000 and the last one for 18,000. It was a lot more than I expected but seeing her face I knew that she was going to make a lot more money selling the bows someplace else. I understand that every merchant needs to make some money somehow so it was inevitable that I couldn’t get the full price.
It was now time to go to the last stop where I will most likely spend all the money I have gotten. It was time to visit the only store that sold magic tech. I looked at the card and saw that I had 353,000 gold left.
I have learned that it’s not the only company to produce or develop new magical items it wasn't even the biggest but it was still supposed to sell items that were better than every other item available in this market.
I was glad that I was able to get a business card from that weapon merchant as she was quite willing to buy any more bows that I have for sale and I’m hoping that I can get a similar card for the magic tech people as it would allow me to keep in touch with them later on and hopefully order some more useful things.
Comments
Michael Stiller
Thanks for another great chaoter.
Stephen Pearson
Thanks for the chapter! :-)
