A Matter of Currency

Linkin began his walk throughout the town. It was some time in the afternoon and the streets were filled with people. Food stands, trinkets, clothing, and strange items that Linkin had never seen before in his life were lined up on the side of the streets.

'Let's see... I have a total of 15 daisai and 5 chisai to work with. First, I'll need to collect some information about the current market in this town and proceed from there.'

Linkin went around to various stalls and asked a large variety of questions. It ranged from how much they sold their products for, special imports and famous places to visit in town, all the way to what the weather was usually like. In the end, he collected a good amount of information.

Fortunately, reading and writing were not the only two things Linkin learned during his time with Lal'Kita. He also learned the value of the currency in this world which was an absolute requirement for his line of work.

From lowest to highest in worth, it went chisai, daisai, reisai, tousai, and meisai. However, the most frequently used coins by the vast majority of people were chisai and daisai. Usually, only merchants and wealthy nobles used reisai, tousai, and meisai.

In order to stay in the inn for a single night, Linkin had to spend 5 chisai. 10 chisai was equal to 1 daisai. 10 daisai was equal to 1 reisai and so on. This meant that 1 meisai was the equivalent of 10,000 chisai! Forget spending a night at the inn, Linkin could probably purchase the entire building with that kind of money.

Of course, it was just a passing dream with his current amount of funds.

'Forget it, there's no point in daydreaming. My first goal is to apply to the Merchant's Guild and receive an official trader's license. However, this is an annoying dilemma.'

For one to sell goods of any kind, they needed a license. The people selling goods on the side of the streets all possessed a vendor's license. However, a vendor's license was extremely restricted and one could only sell goods specific to that license. For example, someone with a food vendor's license could only sell food and one with a clothing vendor's license could only sell clothes.

On the other hand, the trader's license from the Merchant's Guild was a different story. One could buy, trade, and sell a huge variety of goods with a trader's license. Not only that, but they were also allowed to travel and enter cities with connections to the Merchant's Guild without paying and officially import products from out of the kingdom. This was a huge advantage!

Of course, if someone was caught selling goods without a license, then all of their possessions would be confiscated and they may even face time in prison!

Linkin had just escaped from a prison a few days ago and he was in no rush to experience the same thing a second time. Therefore, he would first acquire a trader's license.

The sole exception to this rule was for adventurers registered to the Adventurer's Guild. While there was no fee to become an adventurer, one had to take a combat examination. Although Linkin was confident of his ability to hold his own in a normal fist brawl, fighting things like monsters and beasts was out of the question. After all, he valued his life as a priceless treasure.

Therefore, he could not become an Adventurer any time soon until he learned more about this world. Though it would be out of curiosity more than anything.

But, the problem was that the registration fee to apply for the Merchant's Guild was 5 reisai. With his 15 daisai and 5 chisai, Linkin still had a bit under 4 reisai to earn!

This meant that without a trader's license, Linkin had to somehow come up with nearly 4 reisai and this was his problem. How was one supposed to earn that much without being allowed to sell goods? If one was not already within a wealthy family, worked for a merchant company, or was an adventurer, then it was almost impossible to come up with that amount without saving up for years!

From what Linkin gathered while listening to the conversations in the inn, the average city guard was paid 3 chisai a day. He did not know how the months and years worked in this world but using the earth calendar, this meant that those city guards were being paid a bit more than 2 daisai a week and 9 daisai a month.

In one full year or 365 earth days, the city guards would earn close to 11 reisai. Of course, this was only if they did not spend a single chisai which was an impossibility. So basically, to acquire a trader's license from the Merchant's Guild, one needed to save up the amount a city guard earned in half a year. On top of that, they had to pay taxes and fees!

'What a ripoff!'

If this was earth, Linkin could just open up a few dummy corporations and reroute the money through various shell companies wired directly to multiple unmarked Swiss bank accounts. Therefore, even if the government wanted to collect money it would be impossible. They would also have no way to prove that it was money that he acquired illegally.

But alas, this was not earth and there was no way he could pull off anything similar in this world with his current lack of knowledge.

'I suppose there's one easy shortcut to earning a lot of money in a small amount of time. However, that method requires an astronomical amount of luck. Well, at least if it were anyone else but me it would.'

Linkin stopped in front of a decent-sized building with a sign attached to it that was titled "Den of Everdreams".

'It looks like I'll have to take that route after all to quickly earn enough for the Merchant's Guild fee. It's a bit risky since I'm not sure how magic works in this world, but when have I ever been afraid of taking risks? Though I'm surprised they have a place like this in a world of magic. But, I guess it's within every man's dream to make it big in one go no matter what world they're in.'

Linkin stepped into the Den of Everdreams. It was a place he overheard some people in the inn lobby talking about. The Den of Everdreams was a gambling establishment! How could he pass up such a prime opportunity when it presented itself right before him?

'Hm... 1 daisai should do.'

Linkin removed a single daisai from his inner pocket and tossed it into the air before catching it in his hand as an evil grin appeared on his face.

'Before I leave this place, I'll use some magic of my own to turn this worthless daisai into a tousai.'