22. The Marketplace

With that the trio stepped out of the relative quite of the wagon area to the bustling insanity of the marketplace.

Dan and Joe stayed right behind Novum as he moved through the city with relative ease. He was a huge guy and almost everyone seemed to clear a path for him if they saw him or not. They were not sure how they did it. They also noticed that the people out in the street yelling about prices for the items they had in their hands did not pressure Novum like a lot of the other people that passed by. It was not that he gave off an unfriendly aura but his aura was one of power and determination. It was a power that was usually given off my nobility and the common people avoided it.

As they moved through the marketplace Novum was not concentrating much on the street vendor but the names of the actual shops above the doors. He needed a magical store to find out about the items that he needed to get identified. They were entering the second street when he spotted a shop that he thought was promising. He cut between the street vendors to the shop. Novum tripped as he was coming through the door so it looked more like he was busting into the place. He saw a flash of light and felt a small impact on his armor but then felt his armor take the magical energy and run it into the ground.

The girl sitting at the counter looked at the wand in her hand and the man that was looking at her like she had not just shot him with a magical spell. He quickly held up his hands. "Miss I am sorry. It must have looked crazy but I tripped coming through the door. To you it must have looked like a was bursting in upset." He gave her a deep bow of his head. "That was not my intention I am sorry."

"By the gods are you okay? I mean I freaked out and shot a spell at you. Are you really okay?"

"I am perfectly fine. My armor has some modifications that allow me some basic magic resistance. Though you were pushing that to its limit." A little color rose up in the girls cheeks. "I am here to have some things identified. I know they are all magical but I do not know what they do."

"Please place them on the counter and I will get the owner. If she can tell without any magic it is ten each if it takes a spell it will be a hundred each."

"I am fine with that." Novum started pulling the items out of his bag and placing them on the counter. There were four rings, the brooch, the stone, the mirror, the amulet and the cloak. He was surprised by the amount of stuff he needed to get identified. When he was finishing up her could hear what sounded like a sharp tongued old woman coming from the back.

"Some country bumkin find something and has no idea what it is and I have to get out of bed for a measly ten coin." She stepped through the door and saw Novum and all of the items he had on the counter and her heart started to race. That was a lot of stuff that she would have to spend some time one. "Good morning young man. I see you are quite the collector. Let me see, let me see. Okay this is a challenge for once. Tell you what I know that that brooch is and I have one for sale over there. I will trade it for the identification of everything else."

Novum looked at the brooch on the wall and saw the price and figured that she would offer him half so she could make money. He figured that she was coming in low but he was not sure how many charges the brooch had left. "That works for me ma'am. When can I come and collect them?"

"Should be done in the morning. Unless that Duke's pet mage comes in with something."

"Sounds perfect. Have a wonderful day."

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Once they were gone the girl looked at the woman. "Nana you just ripped him off."

"Easy now girl. What makes you think that?"

"A few of these items you already know even I know what the cloak it."

"Yes but what is its power level. And that mirror is an original item. It might take me all night to figure out its true purpose. And don't let his age fool you that is one shrewd customer. He checked the price on the amulet on the wall and figured I would want to buy it for around for half of what it sell it for. So he factored that in. And he also took into consideration that without a full exam I might not know how many charges are left. I know from a glance that it is only missing one charge so I can get full price. No I did not get anything over on that guy."

"I am sorry Nana, I should have realized it. And sorry I wasted a charge on your wand. He tripped through the door and scared me and I shot him."

"Didn't hurt him at all. That armor is special as well. Yeah he is dangerous. Make sure that you are nice to him. I don't know if I could take him if he was ready for me. But never mind that. Put the brooch out for sale and bring the rest of the items to the back so I can get started." The girl immediately did as she was told. As she had been trained she placed each item on its own piece of parchment so her Nana could write down the results and not take a chance on mixing up the items.

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Novum checked out a few of the stall now that he found his main purpose in coming to the marketplace. Now he had time to look around and find a few more things that he might want. He was surprised by the diversity of all the items in the capitol. As he walked a little further and the smell of animals hit his nose. Now he found his second main purpose in coming here. He simply followed his nose to the area and saw a wide variety of animals.

"I am going to try and find a few animals for the homestead to get a wider variety of meat not only for me but also for the locals, eventually. Looking to get a couple of cattle just for me and a couple of pigs to breed." The two men just nodded and followed him. 'System, please use handle animal in conjunction with appraise and barter in order to determine type and value of animals.' Novum got more and more pings when he looked at each and every animal. He suddenly saw something that made him pause. <Pig??? Value unknown>

Novum moved towards the pigs and started concentrating on them. <Northern Redback - a species of pig from the northern climate given, territorial in the extreme will fight to defend their area. Meat is richer and deeper in flavor.> Once he got close enough and concentrated he could identify the animal it was just the first glance was not enough. He checked the crates and saw that there was a young boar and several young sows. They were marked a little different so it was easy to tell. "Sir are these from the same litter?"

"Those two creates are the same and then these two crates are the same. So the boar from this crate is safe with the sows from that crate."

"Then I will take that boar and this crate of sows." He picked the crate with the fewest sows since he was not sure how big of an area to give them yet.

"Four pigs will be 25 gold."

"Twenty five, standard price for a pig is three gold a piece."

"Well the redbacks are more expensive. Tell you what twenty five but that will include a weeks worth of food."

"Can you deliver these to stall nineteen and twenty?"

"Yeah that is not a problem. They will be on the way in a few minutes. My guys will have to make a couple of trips to get the pigs and the food but it will be done this morning."

"Sounds good thanks." Novum handed him the gold. A quick handshake and back out to the madness they went. He walked a short ways and saw a small herd of goats in a open pen. The tips of the horns were painted different colors. One for male and one for female. They all looked healthy and he made up his mind. He looked at the herd again and saw that once he concentrated there were a few goats that were different. "Sir are all of the goats the same price and do I get to pick?"

"Every goat is the same price and yeah you can pick. I will throw in one days food at a gold a piece."

Novum picked up the marking stick and marked the four different ones. Luckily there was one male and three females. "I want those four and the crate to haul them and two more days food." He pulled out six gold and the man grinned and held out his hand. "Please deliver them to stall nineteen and twenty."

"They will be there shortly sir." The man was trying not to do a happy dance. This man had managed to pick the four meanest goats in the lot. He bought them off a fellow and was not positive that they were not a weird breed of goat he did not know. He did not make any money on them at that price but he did not lose any either. For some reason anyone else that looked at them did not want them.

Novum found two steers that he felt would be great for the home. One was ready to butcher right now and the other would be nice and fat by the time he would need another one. He looked around the livestock area and even though he thought about some chickens, Fang could probably not resist them. Now he was only thinking about getting all of the stuff that the school was going to need. He was about to leave the marketplace and spotted something that he thought would be great for the town. He found bee boxes and a bee suit. He bought several boxes and the biggest suit they had. It appeared that if he wanted honey he would just get bees.

Novum thought about it and went to an inn that he saw and got each of them a small room. He was not sure but if the guys got a girl they would want some privacy. After that the guys went to the look around and Novum headed for a school. He wanted to figure out where they got all of the stuff that they needed. He wandered around a bit and finally found an area that looked like it was a library.

After walking around for a bit he found what appeared to be the head office. The woman at the front looked down her nose at him and muttered in elven. "What does this brute want?"

Novum did not like her attitude so he used the same language to reply. "This brute would like to start a school in his village so he came here to see about supplies." Novum was about to switch to another language when the woman jumped to her feet and gave Novum a bow.

"I am sorry about that. I had a bad morning and I should not have taken it out on you. Would you please forgive me?"

"I have had a bad day or two so of course."

"Now you mentioned that you wanted to start a school in you village. How can I help?"

"Honestly I need to know where I can get the supplies that I need for kids. Like big slate boards and letters and numbers for the wall and maybe even same basic books."

"The slate boards I can send you to a guy. He is the one that does all of the ones for the schools here. He keeps a few in his shop in case something happens here. Can you give me a few hours?"

"My carriage is leaving in the morning but up to that point I have no time constraints."

"Okay. Give me a little time and I will have something for you this evening."

"Will you need any gold for it?"

"I can charge it and you can pay me when you come and get the stuff."

"Thank you very much. I will be back in a few hours." Novum left the school and headed to the place that she told him about to get the slate boards. The man was hesitant to part with them in case something happened at the school but Novum added a few coins and the man gave in. He would have them ready for the wagon in the morning.

As he was walking around he saw a city guard walking the other way and he remembered that the wagons would be without a guard on their way back as he was staying to try and figure out what was going on. He put his hand up and stopped the guard. "Sir could you please tell me where I might find some men to guard my wagons on the way back to my town?"

"By the main gate there is an office that will be able to take care of that. They are not cheap but also remember that they have to go there and then come back."

"Thank you very much. I appreciate the information." Novum headed to the front gate and arranged for a few guards to take the wagons back to Three Mines in the morning. After that was arranged he quickly moved towards the school so that he could get all of the stuff the lady had arranged for him. There were two boxes of stuff that the school had decided to donate since it was all about sharing knowledge. He put those in the top of his bag until he could put it on the wagon in the morning.