Merchant Of Yliaster

The first problem Maxwell faced after entering the city was simple. It was a universal problem. He had absolutely no money.

Frankly, he had many things to sell, but finding a place where he could actually sell those things had been a bit hard. After walking around aimlessly for a while, though, he managed to find a solution.

A boy was playing with something like a lion figurine behind a valley. Maxwell actually found the boy due to the imitation roars the boy was letting out, as he played with the figure.

He was around 6 years old and wore ragged clothes, making Maxwell feel sympathy for his situation. The city looked overly crowded due to the initiation, and the situation would be bad for the average family if things worked similarly to Zephyr.

He approached the boy slowly, like it was a kitten he could easily scare away. Maybe he could ask the boy for a place to sell things. Asking these types of questions to adults held certain risks, as asking them such a question meant telling them you had valuable things on you.

"Roarr," the boy shouted, and made the lion figurine jump. Just then, he realized Maxwell was standing behind him.

He shuffled up like he was caught stealing something. He looked at Maxwell with alarmed eyes. Maxwell felt that these kinds of kids would be far from naive. One of the last things they would want would be to be alone with a stranger in a back alley.

"What do you want?" the boy asked, trying to sound tough, but failing as his voice quivered.,

Maxwell held up his hands, trying to diffuse the situation. "I mean no harm, do you know where I could find a place to sell things?" he asked, deciding to get straight to the point.

The child gazed at him, trying to understand whether he could trust him or not.

Maxwell, getting inspired by the lion figurine the boy was holding, thrust out the Felix figure he had carved from stone before. "You can have this if you show me a place," he said.

The boy's eyes were instantly locked on the figure, and Maxwell could almost hear the gears turning inside his head. He could actually see the exact moment he decided to accept.

"I will show you," he said, and started to run, passing by him like a small hurricane. Maxwell laughed as he followed the boy. With his stats, it was impossible for him to lose the boy. He walked with a speed comparable to the boy's running, receiving weird glances from the people in the street.

He observed the people passing by, trying to get a feel of the level of the general population. He already learned that not all classes needed killing to level up, so he would expect civilians to reach high levels if they were hardworking enough.

The reality, though, was far from that. Maxwell's eyes jumped from person to person for almost a minute as he followed the boy, but he couldn't find a single tier 2 person. He even saw a great number of level 1 people, as if the initiation had happened a day ago.

So, they can level, but it's very hard? He theorized, but it was probably not as simple as that. Most people walking around at this hour would be unemployed, so they would still be far from actually being experts in their skills. Maybe the system only rewards experience when you do something good.

He started observing the workers around him to test his theory and found that their levels were really higher than the general population. He even saw a Level 13 fisher as he passed by a stall.

Soon, they stopped before a dingy place with a sign over it. One of the greatest problems Maxwell faced now was a simple problem he discovered when he entered the city. He couldn't read. The system was generous enough to translate sounds, but it seemed like it deemed written language as not essential.

That was the greatest reason Maxwell needed someone to show him where to go. If he could find something like a library, he doubted that it would take too long for him to decipher the language, though. His mind was unusually fast after all.

He turned to the boy to find expectant eyes looking at him. Sure, the place looked awful, but as far as the boy was concerned, he had done what he was asked to do.

Maxwell sighed and threw the figurine towards the boy. The boy caught it and looked towards Felix, whom Maxwell was once again holding against his chest. Maxwell watched as understanding dawned on the boy's face.

"Do you make these?" he asked, holding out the figurine, for the first time actually sounding excited about something about him.

"I do," Maxwell replied. "I need to find a library after this. I can give you another one, if you know where I can find one," he added, before entering the shop, leaving the boy pondering. He also left Felix outside, leaving Blueberry to watch over him. There weren't many people who could beat the bird anyway.

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The door was as dingy as the shop, and a small bell above the door rang as it opened with a creak. The inside, though, was quite different from the outside. The place was simple, with a counter dividing the room neatly into two halves. It was decently lit and looked relatively clean.

On the other side of the counter, the biggest man Maxwell had ever seen in this world stood. The guy was taller than 2 meters, and his head almost touched the roof of the small room. Even the wideness of his body was not much different, covering the space like a behemoth.

Maxwell couldn't help but observe the guy, seeing his sheer bulk.

Merchant - Level 16

Apart from being absolutely unrelated to the guy's look, his level was the highest he had seen in the city. The man squinted at him, apparently not enjoying the silence.

"How did you find here?" he asked, his voice booming like he used rock instead of vocal cords.

Some people really have unlucky genetics… Maxwell thought, as his ears were assaulted by the sound.

"A boy brought me here," he said, not seeing any reason to hide the truth. It seemed like it was the right choice, as the man's features softened, replaced by a thoughtful look.

"Did he have a lion toy?" he asked, staring at his eyes.

"Yes, he is right beside the door, you know," Maxwell said, not really understanding the distrust.

"Huh, if Tim trusts you, you should be an angel," the man said and let out a booming sound, laughing softly for his standards.

"Or a carver, it seems," Maxwell said.

"Oh, did you give him a toy? That explains it, too," The man said, rummaging through some gadgets in a drawer on his side as he started to speak.

"This is an exclusive shop, you know? Invite only. You, though, I guess I will consider you invited. Tim doesn't like many people, " he said, and finally managed to get something out of the drawer. It was a very old-looking monocle, but Maxwell could feel that there was something magical about it. It shone in his senses.

"So, what can I do for ya?" the man asked, putting on the monocle.

Maxwell opened his satchel and started to place things on the counter. He could see the man's eyes turn from object to object, as they got wider and wider. Maxwell was just taking out things he looted from the forest. He was careful not to take out anything too unique, but he would sell the duplicates he had.

When he reached about a tenth of his stock, the man lifted a hand, motioning him to stop.

"I assume you want to sell these, right? I can only buy this much, or you would make me go broke," he said, as he examined the plethora of different objects on the table. He glanced at Maxwell suspiciously for a second.

"You, no thief, right. I don't deal with stolen goods," he asked, half asking, half threatening.

"No, if anything, I'm a merchant, too," Maxwell said, laughing at the idea. For some, merchants were not that far away from thieves.

"No competition for me, I hope," the man said, more as a joke as he was absentmindedly examining the items on the counter.

Maxwell felt a bit weird. He had not been on this side of a trade for a long time. Especially considering that he had no idea about what the currency even was, he felt a bit out of his depth.

Soon, the man was done examining everything and stopped to do a mental calculation. After the initiation, no one worth his salt used paper to do calculations if it was a part of their job. Maxwell carefully observed the man with his prima sense, trying to get an idea about what the man thought from his mental waves.

"The materials are rare, but so are the buyers for specific materials. I can give you 100 gold coins," the man said.

The only emotion Maxwell could feel from the man, though, was a feeling of greed. He figured this was below the price.

"How about 200?" he asked, testing the waters, and also making the man give him an incredulous look. Maxwell, though, could tell that it was a fake one. From his mental waves, Maxwell detected disappointment, anger, and even some amusement.

"I might as well give you the shop. 150 is as high as I will go," he said, sounding more serious than before. Maxwell, though, could still sense a certain excitement from the man's thoughts. There was no reason for the man to be this excited if the price was fair.

"190," he said, going down a little. 200 was probably close to the real value of the things on the table, but cultivating a merchant connection wouldn't hurt in the future. He could detect no excitement from the man when he said his offer, so this was probably closer to a fair trade.

"You are a tough guy, huh? Fine, but give Tim one more of those toys," the man said and held out his hand.

"Sure," Maxwell replied, and shook the guy's hand, feeling like he was shaking a giant's hand. Despite the man's size, though, Maxwell could feel that he was stronger than the man. This was the strange thing after the system initiation: the stats were a lot more important than sheer body mass.

The man went to a small backroom for a minute before coming back out with a small purse. He gave the purse to Maxwell.

"I'm Ragnar, be sure to come here if you need anything," he said.

"I know how it sounds in this situation, but I go by Merchant," Maxwell said, finding himself in a weird situation. I really should have called myself something different. Maxwell thought. The alias was starting to get ridiculous.

Ragnar boomed with a laugh, hearing this. "Okay, Merchant, see you later." The man seemed to be in a good mood. The trade was relatively fair, but even Maxwell could say that it was a big one. The man would profit greatly from it.

"Well, I will come if I ever need anything," he said before getting out to the crowded street once more.

Tim, whose name he learned just now, was waiting beside the door and was looking at Felix with incredible curiosity. Felix, seeing Maxwell quickly came beside him, scratching his leg. He probably wanted him to take him onto his arm. Blueberry, meanwhile, once again sat on his head. It looked like he wouldn't need fashion to look unique as long as he had these two.

The boy looked a bit disappointed that he lost the dog's attention, but he quickly got over it, remembering the promise of a new toy.

"Shall we go to a library?" Maxwell asked.

The boy nodded, and once more, he started to run. Maxwell sighed before once again starting to follow him. Being a boy looked tiring for sure.