Chapter 15: Where’s the Money?
Entering the city, I first entered what should have been the market district. I came to realize that the culture seemed to be a mixture of my world's Chinese cultures and a few unique other cultures. There were individuals wearing traditional Chinese robes and garments. These individuals were entering shops and visiting taverns of sorts.
There were also people who wore "normal" clothes. These were simple cotton shirts and pants and such. From what I could gather, they were the "commoners" of this world.
Mixed in with those 2 groups were the men and women wearing what I'd call battle armor. They were equipped with swords, shields, knives and all sorts of other weapons. From the look that the other people gave them, they seemed to be respected. This confirmed my thoughts that this society respected the strong. Just how strong, I still had no idea.
From what I got from the guard, he hadn't seen or heard of anything regarding Mabel but that didn't mean she didn't enter this city. My first task was to gather information on this city and use that knowledge to search for Mabel.
I first took the time to walk around and simply observe the surroundings. The customs of this world could be considered "traditional" and the technology that I saw couldn't have passed the renaissance period. This meant that they weren't technologically advanced just yet.
The shops sold items for what they called demon spirit coins. It seemed strange to have the word "demon" in the name but I decided to keep that in the back of my mind for now. These shops sold what you'd expect such as clothes, shoes, and jewelry but also a few other things that were unique to this world -- "crystals" and "spirits".
The buildings were all simple structures that almost never went over 2 stories. The buildings that were higher than 2 stories had high amounts of wealthy looking customers enter and exit. Beyond the regular stores and places, there were also vendors selling their wares along the streets.
After walking around for a while, I figured I'd spent enough time gathering simple observable information and decided to look around for a place where I could find knowledge about the city and this world itself. Asking around led me to find a place named Glory City Library.
It was a large building that had a majestic aura, underneath which lay a deep and ancient aura that enveloped the building. Luckily enough this world seemed to hold the same Chinese characters as my world give or take a few and I could understand the language. I ascended the steps and was prepared to enter when I was stopped by the guards at the door.
"Halt!"
Two of the guards stepped out and stood towards me.
"Show us your library badge or pay the 100 demon spirit coins fee."
Badge? Fee? I didn't know anything about that! I put on my best apologetic smile and said to the guards.
"My apologies, Guards. I didn't understand that there was a fee to use the library."
They frowned and hoisted their weapons up towards me.
"Everyone in Glory city knows about the library fee. We're tired of your kind attempting to sneak in here with excuses. Leave immediately or we will force you to leave."
On my face my smile never faltered, however, my mind was fastly moving into overdrive.
"Is that so? My mistake. I shall be leaving now then."
The guards seemed irritated but allowed me to leave the premises. As I left, my brows furrowed in thought. So there was a fee?
I had to get money somehow or find a way to acquire that "library badge" that they spoke of. I still had no concept of how much 100 demon spirit coins were in this world. But the first step was finding a way to make money in this world.
Thinking over my options, I was left with little options as I was still fresh to the civilization. Judging from what I'd seen so far there are 2 ways of making money, the first being to sell a good or service that people would buy. People would naturally buy items that they felt they needed or they found useful. Many merchants chose this method of making money.
The other method was to hunt the beasts outside of the city walls and sell them at a fair price. This method was the method that those individuals in the battle armor chose to acquire money. Killing and selling these animals seemed to yield a lot of profit as well.
I decided on the first option. What I needed most right now was to find out more about the city. I couldn't do this staying outside of the city hunting. Merchants typically have vast connections and networks. These networks will be beneficial in finding out more about this city and searching for Mabel.
Once I decided to become a merchant, I had to find something worth selling.
Thinking back to what I saw while walking around, I remember that the technology of this world seemed to be stuck back in the renaissance period. With my knowledge of more advanced technologies, should I consider selling more advanced forms of technology? That shouldn't be too difficult to sell right?
But just what exactly should I try to sell? What CAN I sell?
Just at that moment, I heard a conversation going on to my left. Well… more like an argument.
"What do you mean 10 demon spirit coins for this lousy inscription!?"
"It's just as I said! 10 demon spirit coins! I would normally sell it for twice that if I wasn't in such need for the money! This is your lucky day so why are you jumping around complaining about the price!?"
"This lousy thing!? 20 spirit demon coins!? You're trying to pass off selling crap for gold! This isn't even worth 5 demon spirit coins yet alone 10! Not only does it have a weak area of effect but the blast damage isn't very strong as well!"
"That may be Sir, however, this is still a functioning inscription and it works! That alone makes this valuable. If it was one of the inscriptions written by a master of the Sacred Family or one of the other families, the price could go as high as 150 for this simple inscription! While I'm selling it for the low price of 10 demon spirit coins yet you still complain!?"
"You said nothing but a fart! Those inscriptions written by them are worth gold! How do I even know that yours even works? How do I know you're not swindling me?!"
"Swindling!? My family is honourable and respected yet you claim I am a swindler? Not only do inscriptions require precise control and mental fortitude, there is also a lot of time involved in writing them! They are each written by hand so they are all valuable! You must compensate me not only for their effect, but also for the time I spent making this inscription as well!"
...…
The argument seemed prepared to go on for a very long time. But there was something the merchant said that caught my attention. Writing these "inscriptions" take a lot of time and effort to accomplish so they were set at high prices. If I could design a way to mass produce them, wouldn't that be amazing? That would solve my money issues for the time being.
Thinking this far, I decided to go with this idea. Finding a way to mass produce these "inscriptions" was my next goal!