CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR -24- NEW SUB CLASS

Aurrum, the shopkeeper was better than as used car salesman. He had many better qualities, though many villagers had misunderstood him. He may be a miser, shrewd businessman but he was also a visionary.

That's why he did not mind losing his extra storage bag when Nia completed her quests ahead of the schedule. He, in fact gave her more rewards, more XP for the earlier completion of quests.

Nia gained two levels just by completing quests given by him.

That was not the end of it though.

Ding. Completed the Quest- series of items . Difficulty -B+. Time duration - 2 days.

Rewards - Storage bag (Permanently bound to the player Niyathi [Nia's character name]. Note- This item cannot be dropped, looted or traded. This item will not consume extra space.)

Rewards - '**' XP ( '*' amount as quest completion reward and '*' as early quest completion bonus).[Blame me on being lazy. I did not want to arbitrarily give some numbers. This way is more cleaner. But, if want actual numbers, let me know .I'll plug in them as I have these sort of things ready. ]

Rewards - Unlocked subclass -MERCHANT. Aurrum has recognized you as one of his kind of people, a merchant. Would you confirm his recognition? Note- This sub class will not be included in main class or lifestyle class. This subclass will have its own upgrades and benefits. Likewise, it has its own restrictions.

Nia really wanted to jump with joy. She joined this game to make money and a way to make money had fallen on her lap. [This is what I call MC aura. In other words, plot armor.]

Heh! Who cares about lapsing time in extra stat bonus? Who cares about the levels? This is direct way to earn coins and credits.

Nia happily agreed and became a merchant.

Ding. Player XX has discovered a new sub class. Bonus - 10 silver taels, 2 bronze treasure boxes, 20 Tasker Town fame.

This was the first time she actually paid attention to local broadcast. Yesterday, the whole day she had received similar broadcasts for someone finding new place, a new map, a new monster, a new weapon, for getting higher level etc. She never realized the joy of being in the broadcast.

Good news was the default setting in these type of broadcast was they never released your name. Yes, makers of JIN HO were mean enough, miserly enough, greedy enough to make money even through these sorts of broadcasts. You pay extra to have your name in broadcast. To include guild name, pay extra. To make it different and more prominent, pay more. To change the boring eunuch sort of voice for audio broadcast into a sexy boy or sexy girl ones, pay even more. [If you have seen those series showing ancient kingdoms, there would a herald, usually an eunuch, declaring someone's entry into the palace etc. It has unique incandescence, makes people to pay attention to voice but at the same time, causes some sort of discomfort. The description is NOT personal observation.]

After enjoying few moments of broadcast and looking at the local chat group where players were wondering who the player XX was, NIa focused again on Aurrum, who would help her to become proper merchant. They sat near back of the shop and chatted. Nia even bribed him with honeyed buns.

Merchants was not the only subclass in this game. But getting subclass was difficult. But merchants were easiest among the sub-classes, hands down. The very difficult would be those diplomats and ambassadors. They had so many prerequisites and restrictions, but the bonuses were equally rich.

After learning some ins and outs of the merchant class, she checked her status bar again. She now had four symbols under profession tab.

A half white lotus and half empty symbol- a partial healer, a witch. Her main profession, as of now.

A cauldron - alchemist. Her growth was highest in this lifestyle skill.

A wok- cooking. She had started the day with this lifestyle skill.

Now, a new symbol was present. A physical balance with a bag of items on one side and coins on the other and the balance was not tipped to the sides.

She checked that place only to see that she was in a very poor place. Her connections - was one. Yep, only Aurrum. Her points- currently zero. Bargaining -zero again. Sales- zero. Consignment -zero again. Gains and losses- another beautiful zero. Influences- A big fat zero. She did not look down further anymore. It would only have zeroes. She sighed. She still had lots of work to do.

She haggled and bargained with Aurrum for spices, seasonings, containers (for cooking), some other things including recipes (for alchemy). It did not matter that the recipes won't be useful for now. [Hah! You could sell these recipes in off game bargain site. Of course, you are not worried.]

In return, she bargained again to sell few more sets of basic potions. Of course, a new set of collecting items quest. Aurrum, in return, dangled option of gaining a foothold in Tasker Town as bait to bargain. Both gave and took, both compromised or at least pretended to till they were satisfied.

This session gave points under merchant class, even before she had completed the deal. [This class is sure handy. It is giving points just because she struck a deal.]

In higher hopes, Nia now decided to go into all the shops regardless of what they were selling. She visited, talked, cajoled many NPCs. Thus she unintentionally escaped the wrath of Alexa and her groups of 'friends' who had sworn to make her life hell when she came to grind for XP in the maps.