Adventurers, Trade permit, Blacksmith.

Before leaving, since Enri was still out for the count, he used a [Cleanse] spell on her, the room and the bed. Then he took Yuri to take a bath and cuddle. 

She was very affectionate during their time together, enjoying the afterglow of their sexual experience was indeed pleasurable so leaving such a lovely girl even for a moment was a thought choice. 

Closing the door of the room Merek thought about his choice of leaving the girls waiting for him while he did some errands. He did leave some food, money for the girls if they needed anything and also a spell and skill orb he made using the skill [Bestow spell knowledge] and [Imbue skill]. Enri just needed to use hers to learn the spell [Witch bolt] and Yuri hers and she would learn the skill [Burning fist], they would probably be out of commission afterwards for a couple of hours but still he felt he had left something valuable behind since he would come back late.

'Even if it's only for a couple of hours, partners should leave some room for the other to breathe, think, have private alone time or share with their friends… Am I getting attached?'

'Probably, but the only person they have here in this city besides me is each other... Maybe this time can serve to work on their sisterly bonds. Also even if it's for entertainment purposes and you could even call it role playing, I have to do other things.'

Merek was trying to convince himself to not leave all other things for later and fuck his two beautiful waifus all day… for a couple of days. 'Calm down boy, it's still the afternoon, I can do a couple of things and later at night…'

He was thinking about what he would do the rest of the day when he walked across Osmond's room. He could feel Osmond was inside. As of now he had a link with every member of his party.

Enri and Yuri's connection felt similar, because of the sex brand they had he could tell where they were, their arousal state and have a basic understanding of how they felt emotionally; Osmond's connection was differen, he could only tell his approximate location and his health state, nothing else.

Merek felt sad for Osmond, he had created the guy with no other purpose than to be a test to see how flexible his skills were. The results were impressive, it could be seen by observing Yuri but that was it. 

He wasn't sure how intelligent Osmond was or if he was ok with the arrangements he had. 'I'm not sure I want to start having conversations with this dude, but that's the easiest way, yep when I'm back today I'll make a couple of changes.' Thought Merek as he started walking again. 

____________________

The afternoon was not the most lively time of the day in the adventurers guild. Most adventurers go in the morning to fetch a quest, do it relatively quickly and are back by then. From there, most leave to have a drink elsewhere, spend their money gambling or with women, and some go back to their homes with their families. Only a small minority remain in the adventurers guild idling or hanging out with their party.

At such hours a tall man with a scaled terracotta vest and shoes of the same color, black pants and a white shirt. His pristine clothes and strong and manly looks got the attention of the couple of people in there. 

Some murmurs could be heard. "Could he be a fledgling?", "He is surely here to post a new quest"... 

Merek came to the adventurers guild as his first investigation point. He expected that most of his customers would be adventurers so checking out the standard adventurer of this world would be a decent starting point.

Hiding the glow of his eyes when using [God's sight] under an illusion he looked around to catch a glimpse of the adventurers' levels. 'WOW, this is worse than what I expected.' Thought Merek after looking at the adventurers. The highest level adventurer in there was level 17 and had a golden plate dangling from his neck.

Generally from his observations the copper plates were for people level 1-5, iron plates for people level 5-9, silver plates for people 9 level 9-13 and gold 13 to 17. He had a small sample to observe, so he went to the best place to gather some more information: The quest board.

When he walked directly to the quest board some of the adventurers were confused because he didn't have a plate and yet he was searching for a quest. Once near the quest board, even though the quests were written in a language he had never seen, Merek could understand what the papers said thanks to [Comprehend languages]. A skill that translated the squibbles of the game to readable language, on Yggdrasil it was only useful to find hidden quests and such.

Most quests were for copper, iron and silver rank adventurers but there were some for gold rank. Above gold, the only quest was for an orichalum team. It was an extermination request for a basilisk. Generally most quests were extermination requests, some were escort missions and others were requests for a specific herb or material.

After Merek had read most of the quests a sweet voice was heard. "Do you need any help sir?" 

"N- actually yes" replied Merek to the girl on the counter, she had tan skin and red hair; a rare combination. He got near the counter and asked "Can you explain to me the adventurers ranking system?"

She was a little bit confused at first because she thought he was going to post a quest, but maybe he wanted to know the ranking system to understand which adventurer's rank he required for the quest he was about to post.

"Y-yes sir. All adventurers, or at least one of the party, if they are at a party, are required to know how to read. To become copper plated adventurers people just need to fill a form. Then as they do quest, when a proper amount of quests of certain difficulty is completed they are automatically awarded an iron plate"

"From there if the adventurers want to ascend to silver there is a small test that is required,  but can be waived depending on the missions he had completed. To get to gold plate is the same as with copper to iron, when a proper amount of quests of certain difficulty is completed they are granted a gold plate."

"The ranks above gold, platinum, mithryl and orichalum are granted by the guild master when deeds of heroic nature that he deems worthy of the rank he grants are performed."

"Adamantite ranks are given only to the very best of the adventurers and the evaluation is performed by the guild master of at least three cities."

"I see… then I will be back soon with a quest" said Merek. He was going to put a couple quests to ask the adventurers to gather low grade herbs and materials but that would have to wait. He didn't have much pocket money by now, he did have basically infinite amounts of gold coins but those were not role-playing friendly. In this world, the money he had gathered came from Gazef, the loot from the theocracy soldiers, the Sunlight Scripture and the thiefs near E-Rantel. 

"Oh, mmm ok" the girl replied somewhat confused. She thought he was going to ask to put a quest right away. 'Aaaaahhhh this dumbo, what good having nice looks does to you if you are an idiot. Made me explain all that crap to just leave? I won't say anything just because he's so handsome, but he better be back, else he's gonna hear it from me.' Thought the girl from the counter.

"Oh, actually there's another thing you can help me with," said Merek ". You see I'm not from around here and I want to go to certain places in the city. So if you can tell me the directions, or even better show me a map of the city that would be great." Said Merek. He got the directions to the adventurers guild from the host at the hotel but he planned to go to a couple of places and asking every time for directions to the next place was bound to become bothersome.

'Are you kidding? Coming to the adventurers guild to ask for directions,  hah.' Still she proceeded to explain the way to reach each of the places he wanted to visit. The magicians guild, the merchants guild, a place that sells adventurer's gear, the most renowned blacksmith and the most renowned alchemist. 'Hmmm those places don't tolerate people going there with nonsense.'

"Well thank you young lady. My name is Merek Ead Theano if you need help with anything… you will probably know where to find me at that time, don't hesitate to ask for help." Said Merek as he gave the class seven silver silver coins. (That was about the daily wage for a normal worker). "For the trouble that I've caused you." He added.

The girl's mood changed somewhat. 'He wasn't bothering so much that it required a full day's wage… whatever since he feels so generous I'll just take it.' "Thanks, if you need any help don't hesitate to come again, have a nice day."

Merek left the adventurers guild to head towards the merchants guild. He made a mental count of the money he had and 'oh boy, I need to set up the store… maybe I can sell some stuff today before actually opening the store.'

His plan was to see the procedure to set up a store in the city. He was almost sure he couldn't just set up a stand and start selling things without a permit or anything. Then he would go to the blacksmith and alchemy shops to get a better hang of the prices of the wares he was about to sell around here. 

When he went to the merchants guild what he learned was that there was a temporary permit for a week, one for a month and any other permits were permanent. If he got any of the temporary permits he would have to set up his store in a designated spot in a street that was assigned to the street vendors. 

Depending on the sales he made during the week or month he would have to pay for the next one and the spot would move according to that. Better sales ensured you a better spot but would require a higher price when renewing the permit this was basically the way the street vendors paid taxes. 

This method sounded good on paper, but he knew that the people that were assigned to keep tabs on the vendors could be bought to get a better place or to remain quiet if they wanted to pay less.

Merek was not worried about that. If the system worked as he thought the steer vendors would be competing for the best spots all the time. After careful consideration he thought it was better to gather fame as a street vendor, set up a store and then when the store was up and running, leave the store behind to subordinates he could create or summon, move on to the next city or country, rinse and repeat.

To set up a permanent store, the permits he required were signed by the mayor of the city, a guy named Panasolei, and he would have to pay taxes for the plot of land and the structure he created on it. Apparently since Re-Estize is a kingdom the plots of land are borrowed unless you are a noble. Effectively he would be borrowing the land from the mayor.

In the guild they told Merek that the permanent permit would take about three weeks to have it ready. With the money he had left he paid to start the process to have a permanent permit and a one week permit to have a street business in the meantime. The one week permit would be ready the next day, they said.

Finding himself without rp-money, Merek decided to go to the blacksmith shop, in there he planned to sell a thing or two and look at the blacksmith prices. He knew he could easily stomp any competition, but his idea was for peaceful coexistence… 'Well maybe a little bit of unfair competition is not that bad if I can bring the artisans under my wing. That is of course if it's worth it, if not, then whatever happens, happens.

The blacksmith shop was big, the front porch and the front section of the store was made of wood, on the back there was a space bigger than a house made of stone or something similar. 'The store is probably made of wood, the storeroom, the room with the furnace and materials and maybe his lodging is the section made of stone.' Was what merek thought.

When he got inside what greeted him was an almost empty store. There were a couple of shelves showing some daggers, a shield and body armor on a wooden mannequin. Then there was a counter and two opened doors behind the counter. 

Merek got near the counter noticing there was no bell, and neither anyone to greet him he was about to call when a rough voice could be heard. "Gimme a second, I'll be there in a moment." said the voice. A couple of steps could be heard and a small but bulky man got in the room through the door on the right. 

"Greetings, what can I offer you young man.". 'Half dwarf?' thought Merek. "I am searching for a blacksmith to sell a few things, also I wanted to ask for a quote for a couple of things. For instance a short sword, a long sword, a kite shield, some greaves and so on if they are of normal quality and excellent quality." said Merek to the man.

"Heh? So you come to sell and ask for prices. Sorry I'm not interested in that, I smith what I sell and I couldn't be bothered to give prices of things I'm not going to sell."

"How are you going to sell if people do not know your prices?"

"Listen here kid, I've been doing this since…"

"Faaaather, go back to smithing, do not bother yourself with the customers, I'll handle it" said a girl's voice from the backside of the store

"Snort" the small fellow left through the same door he entered. Grumbling in a low voice.

A few seconds later a woman entered through the other door. She was a drop dead gorgeous blonde short hair with two long bangs at the sides that came to rest over her enormous mountain peaks, yellowish green eyes with long seductive eyelashes. She had a slender but strong build with toned abs and her skin was white but not pale. 

Her clothes was very revealing, she had a tube top that partially covered her breast, some mini hot pants that was indistinguishable from just wearing underwear and from it, on the sides a long piece of fabric that extended all the way down her leg but at the level of her knee became something like the leg of an actual pant… the way it looked it seemed that it was made on purpose to show her inner thigh and backside.

She had some wide arm rings that seemed made of gold or brass and from it extended a sleeve down to her wrists. She had a scarf and long boots. The scarf and the fabric that extended from her arm rings and mini hot pants was beige, the tube top and the hot pants were black and her boots were brown.

Her outfit was very peculiar. She didn't have an adventurer's plate hanging from her neck, unless it was covered by the scarf, so this was her normal attire.

"Hello, how can I help you?" Asked the girl

"Is he always so… charming?" Asked Merek

"Father? Well, he has probably lost all his patience with me, but he's a good man, only a little grumpy… Anyways, what are you here for?"

"I wanted to learn the price of a couple of things, and I also want to sell a sword."said Merek 

He asked about the prices of usual stuff a blacksmith sells.

"A normal steel dagger would sell for about 5 silver coins, depending its quality the price can rise to 15 silvers and a very expensive dagger of excellent quality can cost even 50 silver coins. Short swords begin about 15 silvers and can go up to two gold coins also depending on its quality. A long sword or a broadsword may start at 25 silver and can go up to five gold coins. Armor values vary widely depending on the type of armor and materials used."

Merek was taking mental notes about the price of things the blacksmith sold when he came up with a question that had been bothering him. "And what about enchanted weapons and armors?"

"Ohh no, we don't enchant items. We only create the weapon or armor, if you need an enchantment you would need to go to the magicians guild with a weapon and they do the enchantment. I've heard that the cheapest enchantment can cost about 40 gold coins." Replied the girl

"Oh I see. The item I wanted to sell is an enchanted sword. Do you buy them?"

"An enchanted sword?" Asked the girl, raising one eyebrow in disbelief. "Do bring it here, I want to see it."

"Then I will take it out don't get scared" said Merek. The girl sneered thinking 'Get scared of a sword? I work with them all day. Besides, where does he keep it? I'm sure he isn't carrying a sword on him, don't tell me.'

For a second she thought he was about to pull out his little brother right there and just as she was about to stop him a blinding flash of light came from his hands, when she recovered her sight a huge sword was resting on his hands. 

Merek took out the [Woeful poison greatsword Lv 26]: A tough greatsword capable of  inflicting small amounts of poison damage to the enemy.

The sword had a metallic color on the borders and was black in the center. It had purple squibbles on the black area that glowed dimly. 

She was impressed more than by the sword, by the magic he used. 'Space storage? Isn't that magic that only the gods and most powerful beings are able to use.' Her mind was running faster than she could process. But she decided to keep quiet about that fact and only talk about the sword.

She didn't know if he was one of the gods or any other being with similar powers. His presence right now could be very good or very bad, and if it was bad, she didn't want to be one of the first to know it. Trying to hide her expression she asked the first thing that came to mind unaware that it could be interpreted just as what she was trying to avoid. "W-where did you get that sword."

Merek was thinking if she meant where had he obtained the sword from or where did he take it out from right now. After a couple of seconds of pause the girl's heartbeat was rising and she was opening her eyes wide

He pulled out of his shirt a necklace, it was a golden string with a pendant of a small but weird looking cart.

'So he doesn't have a spatial storage like the legends say about the old gods and those beings of power but is the artifact he's wearing... I've never heard of such an artifact. That necklace must be very pricey, and if he has it he's probably not a nobody' Thought the girl. 

"Can I hold it?...The sword" specified the girl when she noticed Merek had an inquisitive face. "Hmmm, sure." said Merek, handing her the sword by the hilt. He doubted the girl would be able to carry it, but as he handed her the sword he decided to use his skill to identify her Levels.

Merchant: LV2

Blacksmith: LV3

Brawler: LV10

Drunken Brawler: LV3

"Ooff this sword is as heavy as they come. [Woeful poison greatsword Lv 26], interesting, but the enchantment doesn't favor the type of weapon this big boy is. Why would someone want such a heavy weapon to inflict poison damage when most probably if it hit something it would cleave right through it."

"Yeah, well It had the enchantment before I found it…probably had something to do with the creature that had it." said Merek, the last part was more like spoken thought but the girl heard it.

"Creature, what creature, wait… are you an Adventurer?"

"no , no I'm not an adventurer, more like a traveler, but more importantly, now that you've seen the sword, what do you think? How much can you offer?"

"Offer? Ohh nonono. I can't buy this, the price would be too high and it would be a pain to sell it so spending money on something that will at most stay here on display is no good."

"Wait., so you asked me to take it out and show it even if you didn't plan to buy it?"

"Tehee, well I thought you were bluffing, and even if you weren't I wouldn't imagine you'd take out a greatsword, maybe a short sword or a dagger, but a greatsword… I guess your best bet is to see if an adventurer wants to buy it, or maybe the magicians guild will buy it if the enchantment is decent. I'm not skilled enough to determine if the enchantment is good, but if it is, they might become interested." replied the girl as she handed the greatsword back to Merek.

"Well, I was planning to go there anyway so I might as well offer it to them. Have a nice day."

"Wait, I didn't get your name."spoke the girl when Merek was about to leave the shop

"Me? I'm Merek, and your name is?"

"I am Leone, nice to meet ya!"