Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, I love to make programs and games without being limited by a lot of ridiculous specifications. The last time I did something like that was when I made a fully functioning game, alongside a small group, for one of my final projects at University. Since becoming a working adult, however, I haven’t had the chance. This time, I will be making Magic Tools--without anyone to me what to do, and what not to do.”

Yep, it’s a good morning.

I can see the sun shining through the windows, feel the soft body wrapped around my own, though her grip seems fairly tight, her soft snores audible in the almost silent morning.

The peace makes me smile for a second--before a feeling of dread slithers down my spine. It’s a common reaction for me, if it’s too quiet, I always start to feel dread--Probably because of all the pranks, and ‘interesting’ ways of waking me up that my cousins came up with when I lived with them; they were never dangerous or malicious, but they could be unpleasant.

With that thought in mind, I get up and put grab my clothing from the floor. I really needed a bath after getting-- ‘sticky and slimy like slugs’ to borrow a phrase.

Pulling a tub out of storage, I filled it with water from the Hell Water Jug; time for a cold bath. I move very quickly, washing myself down with a cloth.

 

>>Skill: Cold Resistance Acquired.

 

It seems that the water was even colder than I expected; but when I apply ten points and activate the skill--it’s not so bad anymore.

“Mornin’ Master!” Arisa wakes up with a spirited greeting, sitting up. She looked at me with a pleased gaze, like the cat that got the cream, slowly licking her lips as she stood up and sauntered over.

She takes the cloth from my hand and begins to clean me.

However, feeling the cold water on her hands, she grimaces, “I’ll wait until later to get clean--”

“Nah, you need to get clean as well,” I feel amusement before grabbing the cloth and slowly bringing it closer and closer to her.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I’m interrupted by a knocking on the door.

“Warm water! I thought you may need to get clean.” Martha says, poking her head in while carrying a wooden bucket which emits steam. She looks at the two of us with a deep blush, before placing the bucket on floor and almost sprinting from the room.

“Thank the god--” Arisa sighs.

I laugh at her words, before taking out the cloth and wiping her down--I turn to Lulu’s bed and see the blushing face peaking out from under the blanket, “Want to be cleaned, Lulu?”

She let out a quite squeak, before quickly burrowing under the blanket.

Arisa giggled.

Putting on my clothes, I walked to the door, “I will meet you two at the stables, come down when you’re ready.” I smile reassuringly at at the blanket covered Lulu, with her bright pink facing poking out again.

***

After a few minutes, we are all gathered in front of the wagon. I had gone out and bought some meat skewers and potatoes from a stall near the inn.

Seeing both Arisa and Lulu there--Lulu again goes pink when she sees me--along with the Beastkin girls, I hand out the food and then go near Arisa.

“How’s Lulu doing? If needed, we can delay the departure by a day or two.” I whisper to her.

Lulu is sitting with the Beastkin girls while eating, so she shouldn’t be able to overhear the conversation.

According to Arisa, it was only serious on the first day, it’s fine now.

Just in case, I will give her some painkillers for the next couple of day--I made five high quality ones

Arisa and I rejoined the others.

After we finished our simple meal, I attached the yoke to the horses and got on the driver’s seat.

***

I mostly just ride the wagon, other than telling the horses when to start or stop and changing their direction sometimes, until we get to the Commercial Guild; it’s pretty easy to park, since the horses were easier to use than cars.

It’s fairly lively around here in the morning, with almost half the parking space filled up with carriages, all of which are unloading their cargo. All of the carriages looked well used, owned by experience merchants who traded a lot.

The people moving the bags look like ruffians, wearing simple long-sleeved shirts and long pants, seemingly made from a material similar to hemp or cotton; I can see from a distance that quite a few of them have patches not only on their knees, but also elsewhere.

While I sit on the driver’s seat, watching the surrounding carriages out of curiousity, I see Suni approaching; he has just finished confirming a lot of loads of merchandise, and assessing the prices.

“Good morning, Tek. You seem to have come rather early,”

“Yeah, sorry if it troubles you,”

I don’t think I have done anything bad, but let’s just apologize for now--better safe than sorry.

“Not at all. The god of business surely likes people who are quick.” Even though Suni said that, if I look at the surroundings--it’s probably customary to bring in cargo in during the morning.

I quickly get off the driver’s seat and follow Suni to the warehouse, the goods that I ordered yesterday are separated and placed together in a different section. I quickly confirm the products and their quantities with the help of an employee.

Using both the Heads-Up-Display, and opening the lid of the barrels, I make sure that it is all as it should be, before closing the lid--Suni watches over me with a facial expression like that of a Grandfather watching over his Grandson.

With a slightly amused grin on his face, he asks the employees to carry the goods to my wagon as I pay for the transaction at the nearby counter.

When I get back to the wagon, the loading is complete and I take a quick look in; I don’t really need to do an inspection, since I put temporary tags on everything, I can see that the number is the same and that none have been swapped out.

I thank the employee and give him two coppers as a tip, which he seems happy for. It might not sound like much, but a copper would be closer to $2.50 on Earth, thank the cents they seem like.

“May you have good business!” Suni said in farewell as I left the Guild.

***

“Welcome, back!” Pochi greets me when I return to the courtyard of the inn. She runs over, hugging me as I get down from the driver’s seat, so I stroke her hair. I also pat her ears, like I did with Tama, it was Pochi’s turn--she closed her eyes and rubbed against me with a pleased noise.

I soon stopped.

After patting her head, normally, for a bit, I pull back from her; and I work on unfastening the horses from the wagon.

“I’ll help.”, Pochi watches me intently. Might as well teach her the way to unfasten the harnesses, manage the yoke, etc.

“What’s everyone else doing?”

“Lulu is in the barn, and the others are shopping.”

“So, Pochi and Lulu are house sitting, huh?”

“I’m watching the luggage!” Pochi answered proudly, her tail buzzing from side to side and her eyes sparkling. She’s certainly qualified to do it with her high Stats, and because I can imagine Tama sleeping on top of the luggage.

I ask Pochi to take care of the horses in the stables, meanwhile, I put the goods that I bought from the Commercial Guild into my storage. I had thought of leaving the goat leather and wool outside, to show that we had commodities sell--but the smell was too severe, I had to stow it away.

Let’s see if I can use Alchemy to make deodorant sometime.

Pochi happily carried the luggage until it was all loaded.

“Watching the luggage.” She said with a pleased look as she sat on the edge of the Wagon, since she is busy doing her best, I’ll go to see how Lulu is doing.

Since the laundry that Lulu is currently washing is underwear, I went back without disturbing her.

***

After getting back to the front of the stables I see Pochi sitting on the wagon and intently looking from side to side, looking so cute as she seriously does her job.

After pulling my attention away from the adorable guard, I say a quick goodbye to Pochi and take a cab to the large plaza in front of the castle--where I found that four-armed Demon the first time.

The flowerbed in the center is still being worked on, but the pavement was already fixed and covered with paving stones.

They sure work fast.

Well, they might have used Magic, since this is a fantasy world.

The wall of the Magic shop is still being repaired, but it seems that it has reopened for business.

“--then--catalysts--scales. If you get your hands on these, I’d like it if you could deliver them to Magic Corp station.”

“I’ll see, when I get time, I’ll as my Mage and Alchemist friends--at the most, I could probably get my hands on one or two pieces of scales.”

As I enter the store, an old woman in a Mage-like robe and an old man come out from the back room while having this conversation.

The old man took a glance at me, but left without saying a word.

“Oh, a visitor? I’m sorry, but I don’t sell Love Potions or Energy Drinks. Go check the Alchemy store in the East District.” The woman who says this is quite old, almost seeming to be dried up. She is wearing clothes appropriate for a Mage, her robes are deep blue, with long sleeves. She has a really tall hat that seems to be rather unwieldy to wear indoors--there are numerous rings with interesting designs on her fingers, and she is wearing a necklace with an emerald pendant in the shape of a skull.

“No, I want to buy Magic Books.”

She raised a white eyebrow in surprise after hearing my words. Leaning her staff against the counter, she takes out something that reminds me of a Yamato Stone from underneath.

“We don’t sell Magic books to anyone without talent, okay? Recently, there have been a lot of nobles who just buy Magic books for prestige, soiling them. I’ll only sell books to people who have a certain amount of Magic, which will be measured by this instrument.”

I probably should have brought Arisa along, since I have no idea how much this stone can measure--I don’t want it to explode or anything equally suspicious--

“Can it break because of too much Magic?” I know the question either makes it sound like I’m an idiot, or I’m very suspicious--neither are good--but I hope she leans more towards the first.

It’s not yet time to reveal my power.

“Huh, excuses eh? If you put Magic Power into this, it will emit a blue light. It’s cheap compared to the one in the Royal Capital, but that’s exactly why it’s so robust. Magic Power stops flowing into the device after it has the required amount, this is done so that it won’t break even if a powerful Mage inputs as much power as he possibly can. If you have Mage talent, it will shine blue, otherwise it’ll stay red, like it is.” The woman looks at me with a raised eyebrow, before explaining it like you would to a child.

“If you don’t want to try it, then go home. I am busy--I need to get Dragon Powder from my Alchemist friend after this.” She rolls her eyes and speaks in annoyance.

The powder that the old man mentioned earlier is Dragon Powder, huh.

It seems to be the stuff that I got from the destroyed Alchemist’s house in the labyrinth.

I wonder if she would be willing to trade Magic books for this.

“Shopkeeper, if it’s Dragon Powder you want, then it’s Dragon Powder I have--if your fine with it, I can trade it with you.”

I take out five vials of Dragon Powder from the bag, the one I have made a habit of wearing to disguise my use of storage. I got six from the house in the labyrinth, but I decide to keep one on hand.

Taking the five out, I see the market price: twenty golf coins, huh?

“Are those real?” The old woman takes one from my hand and removes some tweezers, placing it into what looks like a small petri dish. Muttering words I can’t hear, she tests it with some reagents.

“I’ll buy it for ten gold coins a vial.

What a greedy old woman.

When I point out that the market price is twenty gold coins, she says, “Ten gold coins is the price for this shop.”, rejecting it.

Since I don’t intend to force the sale, and an agreement doesn’t seem to be possible, so I turn to leave the shop; but her hands move at a speed that doesn’t match her age--her eyes are fiery and glittering.

“W-Wait! That old man is probably going to buy them at that price, so I’ll buy them at twenty gold coins a piece. But, I’ll pay at the end of the month, this is my condition. The payment from officials is slow.”

“I’m sorry, but I intend to leave the city tomorrow, so I can’t accept that condition.”

The negotiations continue until lunch time, and in the end, she decides to pay in Magic books.

Because Magic books that are higher than Intermediate level aren’t allowed to sold to anyone who isn’t a citizen of Seryuu City, I’m having a hard time choosing books that are worth one hundred gold coins.

Well, first I should collect the Lower-class Magic books, at least one for each element. Still, that’s only forty gold coins, so I also buy some theses and investigations, as well as various miscellaneous notes. Now everything I have selected is worth sixty gold coins.

Then I buy a few staffs and amulets.

I want to buy Magic Scrolls too, but it seems that only those who have a permit from the city are allowed to sell Magic Scrolls, and this shopkeeper doesn’t, so I can’t buy any.

Furthermore, I buy cheap catalysts for making Potions--it seems that are made from the Magic Cores which come from Lower level Monsters.

“Oh, your main job is an Alchemist, eh? Then, how about these books?” The old woman takes two Magic Books from the back of the store, their titles are ‘Magic Catalysts and Materials’ and ‘Seeds and Catalysts’--the author of both of them is Dahaj, the man who made the spinning disk Magic Tool.

I also buy five other books written by this guy.

“Fifteen gold coins remaining, what else do you wish to buy? I don’t have good Magic Tools left--at best I have a tool that emits light, or a tool that heats up whatever you place on it.”

When I receive them, I see that the Magic Tool that emits light is a crystal ball that is about as big as a Jawbreaker.

The ‘heater’ is a Magic Tool which looks like a pot stand which is twenty centimeters in diameter. Its about three centimeters thick and feels like it is made from a material similar to porcelain, on one side is a copper line that is drawn in concentric circles, like an induction cook-top only with six or seven circles made from a single line.

The crystal ball--Light Drop begins to emit light after I pour in some Magic Power. It seems that it shines for thirty minutes before it needs to be recharged.

The pot stand--Light Hot Plate, will heat up for about ten minutes when Magic Power is poured into the copper line. However, since it can only generate enough heat to scald someone, yet not boil water, it’s not suitable for cooking.

It should be usable to keep food warm though.

The Light Drops are one gold coins each, while the Light Hot Plate is three gold coins--since there are two Light Drops in stock, I buy them both.

In the end, since I couldn’t find anything else I wanted for the remaining ten gold coins, the shopkeeper gives it to me in money.

“Putting money aside, it’s been a long time since someone bought this much.” The old woman looks slightly happy.

“Thank you very much, I was able to buy many good things.”

As I thank the old woman, I ask if I can keep the stuff in the store for a little while, because I forgot to buy a map from the bookstore next door; the old woman says that I can, and saying I will be back soon, I walk out and towards the bookstore.