Sales of cabins and magic books

 I gave a gold coin to my old coworker. Everyone treated me very badly in that store, and only Worm was honest and kind to me. I couldn't let him die trapped in this damned city and in this hellish job without a single penny... Fatty Zhang said. Then he took out a small booklet and began to mutter.

"Let me see, except for the old devil, I've tricked several of his friends and associates into this venture. All of them are greedy merchants who abused their employees, and they were all close to my old place of work. Although I tricked them using the name Lord Leo, it doesn't matter much since Omar's father left the city today at sunrise. I see no problem in using his name since I'm a friend of his son. It worked very well in my favor. I have a clear conscience taking money from this kind of person." I give a silent laugh, as I pat my belly and nod in satisfaction with the coins I got from all these unscrupulous merchants.

A total of 80 gold coins! With all that money I should be able to get an even better loan than that bastard Rafael managed.

Less than an hour later a chubby figure comes out of the Bank with an enraged face and swearing in a low tone.

"Unfortunately my dream of earning a large sum of money from the Bank is not working out. The damn manager questioned me about several things that I didn't know how to answer, things like land cultivation, whether I already had a ship and other things. I tried to say that I was going to leave everything to my friend Omar, but the manager said that Omar wouldn't be around for at least a year and a half. In the end I left with a loan of 70 gold coins only after mortgaging my house, store and my own life."

I can only accept since 160 gold coins isn't bad, but I wanted to buy one of the ship's VIP cabins and travel at the same level as my friends, but since the costs in that place we're going to can be very high it's better to settle for a simple cabin. While I'm lamenting, I arrive at the Sleeping Dragon and head towards the second floor to private room 3. A tavern guard tries to stop me from entering, but I push him away, yelling about how dare he stop me and if he doesn't know who I am. When the guard tries to argue that there's already someone doing business inside, Rafael appears at the door upon hearing the commotion.

"Fatty, why do you always cause trouble? It's okay, you can let him in. He's a friend. I'm sorry for the trouble."

Rafael pats the guard on the back apologizing. Then I enter and come across two incredible beauties sitting inside the room. One appears to be a 25-year-old young woman with all the Valyrian features and the other appears to be younger, only 17 or 19. She stands out for her beautiful black hair and green eyes, something unusual in the Valyrian city. I greet them and sit on a couch next to them, but they barely nod at me before looking back at Rafael who is sitting in front of them, the older one is smiling as she talks about the coincidence of finding his and Omar's ship and that she is happy to travel with them at sea. The younger one seems disinterested, but she looks at the older girl in constant amazement. As if she can't believe how friendly she is with Rafael. That bastard along with Omar always attracts all the beauties easily, what's so good about that face? Look at me silver hair, violet eyes and a strong, robust body that screams to everyone how rich I am and how well I eat... I go to the table, grab a bottle of drink and return to the couch to drink a little and accept that my beautiful body should only be appreciated in other regions...

"I've already filled in all your details Liza since I know most of them, what about your sister?" Rafael asks.

The younger girl then starts answering several questions, her name is Zaya and she is an alchemist, the two plan to find a magic master in Asshai to teach them. Magic huh... I'm definitely good at it! I must find a master too... I can already imagine myself surrounded by women calling me Master Magician hehe. The women pay 10 coins for the cabin and leave the room still praising Rafael for being so attentive to the details of the ship and its menu. I confess that there are one or two things there that I really liked and I'm looking forward to trying...

***

I am finally alone with my friend Zhang, better known as Fatty. I see him distracted after hearing about the menu, I laugh and start filling in his name at one of the last ship cabins. When he turns his attention to me and sits closer, I give him everything he needs about the details of the trip, he just stares for a while, then starts to lament about his business and how he was "screwed" at the Bank by Omar and I going first without him... Fatty Zhang even sheds a few tears, I almost roll over laughing at his pitiful performance, before saying that I will do some jobs and he can participate in them to earn some extra money. He immediately cheers up when he tells me about the scam he pulled on his demonic ex-boss, the man really deserved it, in my memories I always see Zhang lamenting about how hard his job was and how much he was exploited.

Before our conversation can continue any longer two people come in at the same time. The first is Jack and the other is Black Cat, I let them both in together, Black Cat leaves six books in front of me, while saying that I can pay later before leaving a paper with my name and the value of the 6 books. I leave Jack on hold, while I quickly flip through the 6 books saving them in the system's library before giving 2 of them to Zhang, I tell him to get a private room and read these two books. While he does this, I remind him that he can order whatever he wants at the tavern on my tab. He quickly leaves excitedly while thinking about the sumptuous menu of the place. When Jack is alone he takes out another bag, but this time it is not the familiar black leather one but a fabric one, sewn with what looks like branches or tree roots. As soon as I touch it I see his name.

[Arboreal Storage Bag] +

A bag made of mysterious ingredients and extremely ancient, its storage space varies from bag to bag, manufactured by the children of the forest, their method was lost along with the dying race.

Contains 2 identified spells and 1 unidentified.

-Blood Bond

-Blood Tracking

-Unidentified

[Do you want to remove the bond?] Y N

I whisper the familiar false words again and let the system do the work. Soon after I drip a drop of blood and the long-awaited surprise of the day arrives.

A huge space, the current bag easily has twice as much as the two bags I've collected so far even if the system bonuses are included. I soon begin to remove everything inside, and it's not little. About 200 gold coins and 2 gold bars. There's not much copper or silver this time. There are, by coincidence, a lot of books this time, an extremely detailed full-body armor made of good quality steel that is probably worth a lot of money, and many documents that prove ownership of a hundred slaves and at least 7 properties. I dump everything on the table before dividing up the gold and bars. Jack takes a look at the documents before asking for the slave contracts, I don't ask why and let him take them since they have no value to me, but he must have his ways of helping the slaves.

My coins go up again reaching over 400 and I have 2 more gold bars that I can exchange at the bank as well. Before I forget, Jack takes out another bag, the fourth bag from the agreement we had, he would receive this as his compensation. I see that it is only a shadow bag and sigh in relief, I would have a lump in my throat if I lost a tree bag, I should have made it clear if I knew that these are more valuable. Jack must not know that that rustic-looking bag had a much larger space, that's why I didn't take off the armor or he would get suspicious. I remove the bond, and let him drip his blood. He then familiarizes himself with the process and removes a jewelry box similar to the one we took on the first day and which also has no key, 150 gold coins, a lot of silver and some copper.

I take another 75 coins and half of the silver, leaving all the copper for him. My wealth now exceeds the number of 500 gold coins.

"With that we finish the deal, what's the plan for tomorrow?"

Jack asks me, I smile at him.

"Tomorrow is already Friday, you can bring as many bags as you want, don't limit yourself to the east and west districts anymore, you can act here in the north too."

The man nods and for some reason I feel like he's smiling even behind the mask.

"The man who stole the painting should wake up tonight. I'll collect the rewards and hand them over to the authorities early this evening. Where can I find you to hand them over?"

—I'll be on my ship, the Valyrian Sigh, you can stop by later. Speaking of which, don't you want to buy the last cabin we have? We'll travel to Asshai on Sunday night. The man thinks for a moment, scratching his chin under his mask.

"Okay, I'll reserve it, but I still don't know if I'll be able to board."

He gives me 10 coins for the cost of the cabin and I give him the documents. Then I remind him to get on any ship on Sunday and not be in town on Monday. He thanks me for the warning, says goodbye and leaves the room. With that I have sold almost all the cabins, only 2 VIP and 2 regular ones remain, while one of them has only 1 single passenger who bought only 1/5 of an entire cabin.

Without anyone bothering me I start reading the 4 remaining magic books. I see that they all cost a few silvers and only 1 cost 15 gold coins, I start with that one since it wasn't the one Fatty took. The book is called the path of the soul, and it teaches that the soul is the secret to differentiating someone with a talent for magic from an ordinary person. The book teaches a method that allows you to gradually strengthen your soul, but it doesn't explain what uses a soul has in learning magic. For those who were born talented and with a strong soul, the method allows you to purify and further improve what is strong, being seen as a low-level meditation method. The book emphasizes that the soul is something incorporeal and difficult to perceive, which makes many people think that the method in the book is ineffective or a fraud. I try to test the method for myself and follow the steps in the book by sitting in a comfortable lotus position and following the steps…

"KNOCK KNOCK"

Suddenly, a loud knock takes my attention away. Fatty came back saying that he had already finished both books. I am startled by how fast he read before looking at the time and realizing that I have been meditating for almost 1 hour. What a strange method… I didn't even notice the passage of time. I also see a message from the system:

[Low-level meditation method detected]

[The soul has been slightly purified]

It really works! I still don't know what benefits this can bring, but now I feel like I am not wasting my time. Zhang gives me a summary of a book and it seems like something primitive about keeping youth through animal sacrifices. I decide to ignore the book since it can't be verified and it also doesn't say the consequences of such methods. It's better not to risk it.

Then Fatty says that the second book is something he can't read. I take a look and don't understand it either. But if Black Cat bought it, it must be about magic. I put both of them away before giving another one to Zhang to look at and I try to quickly read the other two. The first one is about magic items, just an introduction that seems more like a book for appraisers. The second one is a book about an obscure religion and says to pray to your God and he will grant you great power. I discard both books again and listen to Fatty's description. I don't even go into details. This one seems like a real scam since it says to make offerings of food and money in a certain place in the Valyrian city.

When the clock strikes 6:00 pm I end my time at the Sleeping Dragon, this time I don't take any lunchboxes because I plan on trying out our new chef's cooking. Fatty seems curious about the other magic books so I leave the meditation book with him saying that it is the only true one, I can almost see him salivating as he reads it inside the carriage, I smile since I'm no different when it comes to something as incredible as magic.