The Hero’s Supplier

Although they successfully bought the Hero's Supplier, the place was literally an empty plot! Maya’s declaration that the Earthers could buy land was just that – an empty plot with nothing on it. The first thing that had to be decided was to build the shop itself!

“We need to have a house or something. Selling like hawkers on the street won’t earn us any customers,” said Rick.

He looked around at the others awkwardly desperately missing the convenience of modern technology. All he had to do before was to check a video online to see how it's done or call an expert. But with no talent in construction, he could only hope the others had some experience on it. 

“Don’t look at me,” his sister Samira was the first to reply. 

“I can build a shack, I guess. Nothing fancy though, just a wooden one with a single room,” Dale spoke, coming to Rick’s rescue. “But that’s as far as my expertise goes. You want anything better, we’ll have to find someone who knows this stuff.”

The signs of a well-structured market with a demand for skilled labour was already becoming visible. 

“What can we do to help?” asked Rick. There wasn’t anyone else that had a clue about construction and Dale’s help was automatically accepted. 

“Well, the first thing is the wood. But I doubt we’ll find processed lumber anywhere…” Dale took over. 

Dale rejected all the offers to help build the shop itself but agreed to let them help scavenge for the materials. He quickly outlined a crude sketch of what the place would look like. It was truly nothing fancy, with one entrance and exit to the single-roomed shack there wasn’t much to it.  

“Is it only me, or were you hoping some building to just appear as well? I was hoping buildings would just popping appear after you buy the land,” Jay asked scratching his head. “And didn’t she promise you a discount, Rick?”

Jay spoke what was on everyone’s mind. Although in hindsight it felt stupid to expect buildings to just appear, Rick couldn’t deny he too had the same expectation.

“I guess she forgot about it,” Rick replied with a shrug, dodging the question. On one hand, he did want the discount, but on the other hand, he still was a little apprehensive about the manager’s motives, especially since he knew he was one of those rogue-heroes she seemed to detest so much.  

 “Anyway, back on topic, I might be able to buy these kinds of stuff at the City,” said Samira. “How long do you think it’ll take to build it though?”

“Well I can finish it in a few days, but the problem is finding the materials. We will have to scavenge all the materials from Earth and bring in here. But I will still say it won’t be more than a week, though.” Dale said after a moment of thought. “Another thing is that we have to walk twenty kilometres from the temple to the shop – that’s a half an hour travel wasted right there.  

Maya, the manager of the Blessed Exchange, had generously declared that the heroes could set up businesses in the Blessed Exchange. But with nothing to build with everything would have to be sourced back from Earth through the teleportation-circle.

“I am getting two teleportation-circle prints. I doubt I’ll be able to draw it myself,” Samira replied in a matter-of-fact tone. 

“Oh yeah, the teleportation-circles!” Rick exclaimed, opening the Lesser God’s System as well. With so many things in his mind, he hadn’t even checked the teleportation-circle in detail. 

 

[TELEPOTATION-CIRCLE: BLESSED EXCHANGE]

[The teleportation-circle will allow the host to travel to the Blessed Exchange. 

On activation, the host will be teleported to the outer garden of the Temple.

To change the arrival location, place a second copy of the Teleportation-circle in the desired destination.]

[NOTE: this is only a holographic copy. The host would require to draw this on a physical object]

[NOTE: Every Teleportation-circle is unique. The host can only draw his own teleportation circle.]

 

Below the description was the diagram of a circle with countless complex runes running crisscrossing it. 

It was much less complicated compared to the teleportation circle had brought him to the Blessed Exchange in the first place. That teleportation was so complicated that even the Lemegeton couldn’t decipher it. 

 

It is a different runic language that is not documented.

 

The problem was that the grimoire didn’t understand the runic language of the Blessed Exchange world yet. He didn't account for the fact that every world had a different language. 

But now that he thought back, this wasn't the first time he had encountered an alien language. Before this, he had come across the demonic language on the runic book he got from the King of Hell. But back then, the Lemegeton surprisingly knew that language, but didn’t recognise the language of the Blessed Exchange!

‘Maybe the Lemegeton can figure this out now,’ Rick thought excitedly. Since there were two teleportation circles, the range of data with the Lemegeton to interpret the runic-language of the Blessed Exchange had effectively doubled!

He was itching to take out the grimoire right there but held himself back. He looked at the teleportation-circle again and knew it at a glance. 

‘I can draw it.’ Rick concluded.  

Sure, it was would be cumbersome to draw so many unknown runes perfectly. But it wasn’t impossible. He had faith he could do it. 

“You should buy a teleportation-circle print. It will be a task for me to draw them as well,” Rick spoke. 

He wished he could draw other’s teleportation-circle. That way he could churn out a neat profit for himself as well. But since everyone had a unique teleportation-circle, it was impossible at least for now. 

“If it’s you saying that, I guess there is no way I’ll be able to draw it either,” said Jay clicking his tongue.

As the resident rune-craftsman, his declaration that it would be difficult for even him to draw the circle was enough to convince the others as well. It was obvious that Maya wanted others to spend their money buying the teleportation-circles, but there was no way around it. 

“Okay, so the shop’s done. What’s next?” asked Rick. He wanted to get this over quickly and get on with it.

Once the list for the materials was decided upon, the rest of the details quickly fell into place.

The next thing was, of course, to decide what would be sold at the Hero’s Supplier. The first thing they decided on was to put up a backboard on one of the walls of the store listing out all the available things. That way the others could run the shop even if he wasn’t around at the Blessed Exchange. 

Rick naturally had to take the responsibility to keep the shop stocked up with artefacts. But he suggested the addition of an additional item to their catalogue – the Hired Help

 option! 

It was essential to offer their hired services to work for others as mercenaries, but had to change the name after Dale’s opposition. 

“You can change the name, but it doesn’t change what it is, does it? I’m not working as a sellsword and that’s final,” said Dale vehemently. 

“I’m not asking that we kill people on their behalf,” Rick said, trying to persuade the ex-soldier. 

The main drawback of the Hero’s Supplier right now was that it didn’t have enough manpower to supply too many items. But with the Hired-Help option, they could essentially mitigate it entirely. 

Moreover, Rick didn’t plan on being other’s hitman either. Instead, he wanted to be the personalised boutique that catered to the individual orders of its customer!

“Think about it. I’m not suggesting we become murderers! But some people will need help from someone like you when they want to clear a dungeon, or looking for an exotic material in a faraway city,” he explained. “We may not have something that the customer wants, but for a price, we can get it for them!” 

After explaining his plan for another fifteen minutes, he had his first supporter.

“But I want to be able to refuse a job as well,” Jay voiced skeptically

“Of course,” Rick immediately agreed. Even if he wanted, there was no way he could force Jay to do something he didn’t want.

“I’m in,” Samira agreed with a slight nod. 

Rick smiled back at his sister and finally turned towards the lone opposition on the fence. 

“I don’t think we need this really,” Dale said, still unwilling to agree. 

‘Of course, you think that!’ Rick thought with a plastered smile on his face. All this while, he was stuck with all the work while the others didn’t have to put in any work at all! Sure, the ex-soldier agreed to build the shop, but Rick would be stuck with all the work after that! ‘Not so quick!’ 

***