26 Auction House

Troy doubted the content of the post. The author said that by selling 10 different items to NPCs and getting a profit from them, would trigger a system notification that asked if the player wanted to change his job to be a merchant.

He was curious about the validity of the post. As he wanted to change his job, he intended to try the method. If it was true that would be good, but if it was wrong, he wouldn't suffer any loss. After that, he could restart his job.

***

That day Troy closed his pub at 8 pm because there wasn't any customer that came to his place all-day. After having a shower and dinner, he came back online.

He had thought about what he would sell to NPCs all-day and got an idea. NPCs indeed could access the auction house. However, some busy NPCs should be too lazy to always check materials' prices, so mostly they would buy anything available at any price.

The items' prices and availability fluctuated and were not certain. If there were many of them, the prices would drop, but if only a few of them were available, the price would soar. And the dynamic of the prices would fluctuate not in days but hours. It was possible the item that was cheap would be expensive just in an hour. They were more unstable than stocks.

His plan was simple, he would buy any common materials like metal ingots, cheap monsters' hides, and common potions' ingredients at a cheap price and sell them to local professional NPC's in his village with some profits. Of course not too many, but if he could sell a lot of items at once, he would get big profits.

However, to implement his idea, he should have not too little capital, so he purchased 1,000 dirac with his credits. He wanted to try his method if it was feasible, so he entered the game with excitement.

***

It had been 5 hours Troy inside the auction house. He was watching the fluctuations of prices of some commodities.

Sometimes, he intended to buy some, to find out that the price had already been raised. He realized that he was not the only one that thought of the method. Or maybe the other people were just speculants. They would buy the goods when they were cheap and sell them gradually when the prices rose.

He was tempted to do it too, but he knew what he would get was only dirac coins if he did that. He wanted more. He wanted to make a good reputation among the professional NPCs. He wanted to build a stable foundation in his village. So he could have an influence. He was tired of being nobody.

***

The village that Troy resided in was named Ivy Cape. It was a coastal village with a lush forest behind it. A large river flowed 3 km from it.

The river flowed from the North and emerged to the ocean in the Southeast of the city. A small creek was made from this river to fulfill the village folks' needs. The village wasn't built on the riverbank because, in the rainy season, it was flooded frequently.

The population of the city consisted of about 1000 NPCs and 500 players. The number increased almost every day, as some NPCs that were attracted by the light tower of the village came to take refuge.

Ivy Cape Village was led by John, a high-level sage who built the village 3 months before the players were summoned. The players rarely saw him as he usually stayed inside of his house beside the village hall. In this place, the players took quests and reported them to his aides.

As a new village, it was in the rapid development phase. Almost every day, new buildings were built by the NPCs that were helped by the players. Because farms and ranches still couldn't fulfill the village's demand for food, many NPCs and players hunted the monsters and collected wild fruits in the forest. Some of them also fished some fish on the coast or the river.

Troy had fallen in love with the village since he was summoned. As a man who always lived in an underground sanctuary, living in a coastal village was something that he never dreamed of.

Looking at the vast ocean in the South, and a lush forest in the North made him think that he was in heaven. He often saw many players play on the beach in the afternoon. He also often came to the beach after hunting just to watch the waves hit the shores.

If it was possible, he wanted to spend the rest of his life in the village. Because of that, if he couldn't become a powerful warrior, he wanted to be a successful merchant. Because he had a gut feeling, Ivy Cape village would become a big city someday. And he wanted to take part in its glorious development.

***

It took him a day to get 12 kinds of materials at cheap prices. He spent more than 1,300 dirac coins to get them, so he had purchased another 500 diracs from the system. The rate of dirac soared again. If he could get 1,000 dirac with 1,060 credits before, he must pay with 550 credits to purchase 500 dirac the next day. It made him more excited as it meant he would get more credits if he sold his dirac coins in the future. So he hoped the trend never stopped.

He then bought a cloth mat, a bundle of paper, and a set of writing tools from the auction house. He never thought he could buy everything he needed from the auction house. He wondered whether players or NPCs who sold them.

He then made a stand in front of the auction house after getting permission from the auction house staff. At first, the staff seemed to be confused, maybe because it was the first time a guardian asked him for permission to make a stand in front of the auction house. However, after knowing what Troy would do, he supported it.

Troy was happy he got the permission. The staff then said that any activity that could help the village was worthy of support. Troy could only say thank you.

He put some samples of his products on the mat and wrote the list of the price. He then waited quietly while chewing a bun. He bought some of it before going to the auction. A player also needed to eat at least two times a day. If he hunted, he could eat four times a day for keeping his fullness above 70%.

Because it was still in the morning, Not many NPCs or players came to the auction house. Usually, they started to come around 8 am. Some players who had production jobs would also come to buy some materials to do their production activities and sell their products.

A burly man with a coarse shirt came to the auction house. He seemed to be interested in the sitting Troy and his stand.

He looked quite interested in copper ingots and iron ingots that were displayed on Troy's stand. He then approached the stand.

"Excuse me, Mr. Guardian. Do you sell them?" The burly man asked.

Troy smiled at the man with a professional smile that he had trained for years as a pub owner, "Welcome. Yes, I sell them. Can I know what you need?"

"Yes, how much the iron ingot and the copper ingot each?" The man asked.

"Three diracs for the iron ingot and 1.5 dirac for the copper ingot," Troy answered.

The man was looking at the ingots thoughtfully and then with a blushing face said, "Actually they are pretty cheap. However…."

Troy understood what he was concerned about. He sneered in his heart, 'Hohoho… Do you want to check if you could get cheaper prices from the auction? I assure you won't get cheaper ones.'

"Of course, I understand that you need to sell your products. I won't go anywhere anytime soon," Troy said.

"Y-yes! I needed to sell my stuff for a while. Please wait for a bit," The burly man then strode into the auction house.

Troy had checked the prices of the materials before opening his stand, so he knew that the price wouldn't drop anything soon.

Three minutes later, the man came back. With embarrassed smile, he asked, "Do you have 24 iron ingots and 18 copper ingots?"

"Yes, of course. The total is… Please wait a moment." Troy felt the man's order was somewhat weird. He then took a piece of paper and charcoal. He then did a simple calculation.

Then he knew the reason behind the order. He could only sigh, 'What a meticulous man.' He then checked the man's identity. His name was in green color.

[Elbert]

Race: Human

Level: 35

'Wow… So he is a master,' Troy exclaimed in his heart.

After calming his heart, he said, "The total is 99 dirac coins."

The man then put a cloth sack on the stand, "You can keep the rest."

Troy then counted the coins and found that there were a total of 100 dirac coins inside, "Thank you, Mr. Elbert." He then put 24 iron ingots and 18 copper ingots out from his inventory.

"It's fine. I get more than I thought when I go. You deserved it, Mr. Troy. I hope we can have more transactions in the future," Elbert said while taking his order to his inventory.

A few days before was the first time he saw an NPC took something out of the thin air, he was surprised at that time. From other events later, he understood that an NPC could do anything that a player could do except being resurrected after death in the village square.

"Yes, me too," Troy said while shaking Elbert's hand.

***