Merchant Of Yliaster

It didn't take long for Maxwell to finish his plate and a couple of others. If anything, this would prove to be a motivation to earn money in this life, too.

He knew that money would simply flow in due to his high level, though. This place showed that wealth distribution was completely unfair in this world, too, being skewed towards a small percentage of rich people. Actually, it was probably a lot worse, considering that only nobles had access to technology.

High-quality food is consumed.

All stats +10 for 2 hours.

Even though the system acknowledged the food as high quality, he was really curious about what a tier three or four chef would be capable of.

"I will retire to my room. Have a good night, friend," the man sitting beside him said, slowly getting up. He hesitated for a second before speaking. "My name is Devon Rodrick. It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, holding out a hand.

"Maxwell Aurelius," Maxwell said, shaking hands with the man. He couldn't bring himself to say "The Merchant" as it felt real in everyday situations. It was not like his name was traceable anyway.

"Aurelius? Are you from a distant kingdom?" Devon said, apparently thinking that Maxwell was a noble. Ah, only nobles have last names… he thought. It was a bit funny that his reasoning for giving his name shattered in 2 seconds, but he didn't let it disturb him.

"Very, very distant," he said, chuckling.

"Well, at least it won't cause a diplomatic crisis then. Good night," Devon said, and left the small room through the opposite side from where Maxwell entered.

Maxwell sat back down, drinking the last sip of his drink. On the table, Blueberry and Felix could be seen. The bird was done with her food, and despite eating something incredibly bigger than herself, she looked as she always has.

Felix, on the other hand, looked a bit weird. The dog was looked completely healthy, and was wagging his tail, looking at Maxwell happily. The problem was that Maxwell was pretty sure that the dog was a bit bigger than before.

He lifted the dog, holding him from his nape, and after weighing him with his hand, he was sure that was the case. "You grow when you eat?" he asked the dog telepathically, more as a reflex than waiting for an answer, and surprisingly received a response.

Suddenly, a feeling of immense happiness slammed into his mind, causing him to smile without any reason. The dog apparently figured out how to respond, but he was a bit bad with things called thoughts. It made sense as he was just a small puppy. Maybe a little bigger after this though. Maxwell observed him, trying to see any difference.

Felix - Puppy - Level 9

"You got a level out of that?" Maxwell sent. He was curious if this was because of the parasite or the food. Blueberry was still the same, but that didn't prove anything as the bird was already at a high level.

He felt another burst of happiness, as the dog failed to understand the meaning behind his message, just understanding that Maxwell was pleasantly surprised due to something.

Maxwell sighed. It was late, and despite not feeling the need for sleep for a week, Maxwell didn't find the idea repulsive. He placed seven gold coins on the table and watched five fly away. He glanced at Nesha questioningly, having learned the woman's name in the conversation before. He ate three plates, and adding the drinks, it should have amounted to seven gold coins in total.

For the first time in the night, the woman moved from where she was standing. Now that Maxwel had thought about it, they probably ought to get a chair for her at least. It would get tiring to stand like that for hours.

"Your pets are cute," she said simply, holding out her hand to pet Felix. Being a friendly puppy probably housing horrors beyond the woman's imagination, Felix quickly leaned into her hand, enjoying some scratching.

Blueberry, though, threw a prideful look before returning to Maxwell's head. Maxwell could vaguely feel that the bird was irritated due to mental waves constantly radiating from the woman. For her senses, they probably felt like white noise.

"Well, 1 in 2 is still a success," Maxwell said, smiling at the woman.

The woman smiled at him faintly before speaking. "Their meals are on the house. You can go through the same door as Devon if you would like to spend the night here. Rooms are free of charge," she said, sounding like she was not used to forming long sentences.

"Thanks," Maxwell said, before stopping for a moment. After a second of consideration, he decided to continue. "You use mental waves to move things, right?" he asked, receiving an amused look.

"You really are new around here, don't you?" she asked, making Maxwell think about the implications of this woman knowing everything spoken here in this room. Probably, a lot of important people have discussed things here on a daily basis.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Guilty, I assume it's rude to ask what people's abilities are?" Maxwell said, noticing his error. He knew about the general culture of the empire, but he couldn't find any book in the library written after the initiation, so he was completely blank about the culture formed around the system.

"Yes, immensely so," she said, chuckling. "And, I suppose I do, but it's more of a cooking skill in my system interface," she said, still answering the question.

"Do all people get such special skills in tier two with profession classes?" He asked curiously. If that were the case, the world would soon become a very interesting place. He could already imagine engineers building outrageous things with their otherworldly abilities.

"To a degree, they do. It's about your titles, though," the woman said. She seemed to enjoy their talk.

"Why don't you use telepathy? It's just a different application." he said, and received a look implying that woman thought he was an idiot.

"Well, forgive me for not being able to invent a skill," she said sarcastically. So people can't form skills that easily? It was not even a very complicated jump. He was still curious, though. He formed a channel between the woman and himself, sending the sentence through the channel.

"Can you answer through the channel?" he said mentally. He could see the woman flinch momentarily due to the unexpected mental intrusion. She looked at him, squinting her eyes.

"I don't like people inside my head, Mr. Maxwell," she said, mentally and even mentally, Maxwell could feel the coldness of the sentence.

"I formed a channel between us; if you don't send thoughts willingly, I won't hear them," he said, trying to alleviate the situation. He hardly wanted to piss of the chef if he could help it, he really liked the food after all.

"I hope so," he heard, this time a lot fainter than before. He smiled, seeing the woman's eyes go wide, apparently reading a notification. His own notification soon arrived, too.

Title "Teacher" acquired.

Teacher: The ability to learn and create skills is immensely valuable. You can even do it for other people. You should open a school somewhere.

Maxwell smiled, seeing the notification. He wouldn't be able to stand the children, but a school for competent people could be an interesting endeavour in the future.

What he did just now was simple. It was actually how they taught telepathy to children back on Zephyr. You first formed a connection with someone and spoke to them about trivial things, distracting them from the telepathy. Then, you severed the connection when their turn to answer came without letting them know. Most of the time, the answer still arrived, as they unknowingly used telepathy to answer.

It looked like affinities, or whatever the thing woman had, making her able to use mental energy, was similar enough to etherium, as the woman managed to send her answer.

"I assume you got it?" he said, smiling. But the woman looked devastated for some reason, making him confused.

"What do you want for this?" she said, suddenly turning incredibly serious. It somehow made Maxwell think that maybe what he did was more impactful than he realized.

"Well, I was just testing a theory of mine. I guess I could take a drink?" he said, chuckling awkwardly.

The woman looked at him disbelievingly. "You are trying to tell me that you did this out of the goodness of your heart?" she said, sounding a bit hysterical. Some of the customers threw curious glances at them.

Maxwell sighed for the second time in the night. "I assume this is not normal, too?" he said. Just as he finally got people to talk casually, if this continued, they would soon be worshipping him, too.

The woman just looked at him and made a face of concentration. "You are not kidding right?" she said. Maxwell was surprised by how low-quality the usual telepathy felt after using Soul's Voice for some time. He formed a soul channel before replying.

"I'm not. I was isolated when initiation happened, so I don't know much about the culture after the system," he sent. The woman, apparently finding this lie pretty acceptable, visibly relaxed.

Gaslighting Leveled Up 12→14

How is this gaslighting? Maxwell thought, irritated by the notification. Everyone lied, but getting called out inside his head was quite disturbing whenever he lied even remotely.

"You might not understand the significance, but what you have done just made the path my class could take a lot wider," the woman said, stopping for a moment as she sent some drinks to other customers. Unfortunately for her, Maxwell didn't know how he could teach parallel thoughts. She continued from where she left off.

"I, Nesha Rodrick, thank you. You can use The Nest for free in the future. Also, feel free to consider me a friend," she sent. Are they siblings with Devon? That actually explained why the man was so casual around here, as he didn't even pay for his drinks.

Wait, Maxwell suddenly remembered that the organizer below had mentioned a mistress when he was bringing him to this place. This woman was that mistress?

"Nice to meet you, Nesha. I will be your friend as long as you still cook," he said, joking. The woman smiled, appearing relieved. Did she expect me to be a schemer or something? Considering all the literature that existed around nobles scheming against each other for petty things, that was possible.

"I will go to my room too. It's been some time since I last slept," he said, and got up. Now that the action was over, his previous lazy mood was slowly returning. He picked up Felix, who was confused by the silent exchange for a while.

"Good night," Nesha said, and returned to the center of the room. He could see that the woman's skill worked better from that spot, as everything around her became smoother as she reached it.

The way to his room was not complicated. After passing through the door, he entered a straight corridor about 20 meters long. On the sides, there were about a dozen rooms. Most people probably didn't choose to stay here, as that would have been quite insufficient otherwise.

He could see that occupied rooms had a small red light under their door handle. He picked one of the empty rooms and went inside.

The room was relatively simple, considering that this was a luxury hotel. There was a bathroom and a small bedroom. The bed was around king-sized, but the bath looked like it was devoid of technology, meaning that one needed to heat water to take a hot bath. He was unsure how the toilet bowl worked, but he was not curious. He was very happy that he didn't need to use the bathroom.

Now, he could understand why Gendor was so concerned about plumbing.