Chapter 3 | The Bargain

"Steven! Steven! Wake up, Steven!" a voice rang in Steven's head.

Steven slowly opened his eyes revealing the source of the voice. Jel was directly on top of him in front of his face. "Could you like, let me breathe?" Steven said with a grumpy tone.

"Finally, you are awake! it's 3 PM and you've been asleep all morning and part of the afternoon!" Jel warned Steven of the time.

"Wait how do you know what time it is. We don't have a watch or anything?" Steven asked getting up from the ground.

"Well, I woke up extra early and decided to try to find the exit of the wilderness! and I did!" Jel replied.

"WAIT REALLY?! OH MY GOD YOU'RE A GREAT HELP!" Steven said curling his arm around Jel's neck rubbing his hair.

"Hehe, why thank you thank you!" Jel said flattered by the compliment of being useful. "I got a map so we can head back into the market, and I managed to sell the flowers to a flower shop which gave me 65 dollars' worth of cash!" Jel added.

Steven felt relieved of his stress and worries of having to find a way to earn money or having to search for the exit of the vast wilderness. He truly started to feel more grateful for having Jel around.

"So, want to go head to the Market? we could buy some actual materials and maybe some sleeping bags." Steven suggested Jel.

"Yeah, we can go right now. I'll show you the way." Jel said walking outside the fort. Steven follows and they both start heading to the exit of the Factions Wilderness.

After thirty minutes of traveling, they finally arrived at a gate. Noises and sounds of people could be heard inside and the scent of steak and fish was very strong. Jel and Steven walked in revealing a giant hall full of market stalls and food stalls. Every shop was different from the others in some way. Steven could hear the sound of swords clanging against each other which lured him in farther into the market.

"H-Hey Steven wait up!" Jel said hurrying after Steven in the market.

The market was crowded with people wearing Armor and different equipment. It was obvious all of these were travelers since they carried Swords and Axes. Steven spotted a Sword Shop and rushed to it immediately as Jel chased after him.

"JEL, LOOK! SWORDS! WE CAN GET ONE FOR YOU!" Steven said looking at Jel and pointing at the vast collection of Swords organized by rows hung up on the walls. "Yeah, they are cool but... wouldn't they be expensive?" Jel said worried about the pricing. Jel and Steven had a budget of 65 dollars, it was enough to buy things like food and other small necessities. But it wasn't enough to buy a sword that cost an average of 50 Dollars.

Steven thought to himself of attempting to bargain with the shopkeeper to get the sword at a cheap price. Although Steven was somewhat good at bargaining, at times he would screw up with his wording and it was obvious to the shop owner that Steven was trying to rip them off.

The shopkeeper walked towards the two boys that were hanging over the counter like little children. "What can I Getcha two boys?" the shopkeeper asks taking a toothpick out of his mouth.

"Well, we were wondering if we could buy the cheapest sword you have, for my friend," Steven said.

"I see, well Mah cheapest sword in here is around 45 bucks." The shopkeeper said turning around to point at a sword held up with a discounted sign on it. The sword had a black fine grip to it. the blade looked a bit blunt, but it could definitely cut through the grass, and the blade was also short, and it wasn't a big sword. But it could do fine for a combat situation or harvesting materials in general.

Steven thought the pricing was still high. Jel and he only had the budget of 65 dollars and if they spent 45 dollars on a lousy sword then they would be left with 20 dollars left to spend. Which wasn't a lot for recourses or for shopping in general. Steven was thinking about bargaining now. It was his only plan B in store.

"Well, you see... do you think you can take 5 dollars off. We only have forty dollars, and it took us an hour to get here." Steven lied to the shopkeeper.

"Uhm... Sure, I guess." The shopkeeper said not sure about his answer but trying to be generous.

"You know the blade is a bit rusted, if I'm being honest, it looks kind of blunt," Steven said attempting to raise the price lower. "Could you discount it for 5 dollars more?"

"Uh... well now the pricing is 35 and I- don't know if I can do-" Steven cut off the shopkeeper with a serious face. "My brother went missing on the way here." Steven lied with a more serious tone.

"Wait, what?" the shopkeeper said in confusion.

"On the way here, he was kidnapped by a faction, and now to get him back I'm going to have to invest 20 bucks on missing posters." Steven lied again trying to place guilt on the shopkeeper.

"Oh-Oh... I'm sorry for your kidnapped brother. I'll discount it for 20 dollars." The shopkeeper said rubbing the back of his head from guilt. The price was now 15 dollars and Steven still didn't feel satisfied. It was risky to keep going but it was worth it to not spend a penny. Steven was thinking of raising the price down to FREE. but he didn't know what to say to convince the shopkeeper. And then he thought of a solution.

"One moment please," Steven said to the shopkeeper and faces Jel. Steven leans closer into Jel's ear and whispers. "I want you to find the nearest strongest-looking dude. And then tell him that this shopkeeper was threatening him."

"B-But isn't that a bad thing to do?" Jel whispers back worried about the shopkeeper's safety.

"Don't worry, if anything bad happens I'll stop the attacker from harming the shopkeeper, just trust me," Steven whispers assuring Jel of the safety of the shopkeeper.

"Okay, I'll do it" Jel finally complied. He then turned behind him and started walking towards a jacked guy. Jel finally stopped and hesitated to tap on the shoulder of the man. But he had no other choice.

"E-Excuse me, sir." Jel tapped on the back of the man. The man turned around facing Jel.

"What is it, little man?" The man spoke with a raspy voice. His chest and abs were pushed out of his body. His muscles were ripped and big. The intimidation Jel felt was overwhelming him.

"W-Well that shopkeeper over there, selling the swords was saying he- he was going to kill you." Jel stuttered making up a lie. The man then flexed his arms. His huge muscles from before grew larger. The veins on his body were bulging out. And his face filled with rage. The man then sprinted towards the shop keepers Stall and Steven immediately knew what was going on. His plan was working and now it was up to him to find a way to defeat this huge man.

The shopkeeper felt scared and backed away into a wall. Steven then unsheathed Valkyrie and leaped towards the man running towards the stall. The man noticed Steven leaping towards him with a sword, and winded up his arm and jabbed towards Steven. Steven then swiftly dashed past the jab and landed on the ground finally slashing towards the man's abs. Although the sword didn't cut through the man's abs since they were firm and hard. It created enough power to blow the man back away into a wall, knocking him out.

The battle only lasted 30 seconds but Steven came out victorious in the battle. And his plan succeeded. Crowds gathered up amazed that Steven was able to defeat a big opponent and was a hero for saving the shopkeeper. But they didn't know it was all a setup just to get a sword.

"So, Mr. Shopkeeper," Steven smirked as the shopkeeper got out of hiding. "I did save your life so... it's only fair you give me that sword for free."

"R-Right," the shopkeeper said brushing the dust off his overalls. He walked over to the sword and got it off the shelf handing it to Steven.

"Thank you," Steven said sarcastically knowing he ripped the shopkeeper off.

"N-No problem." The shopkeeper replied feeling ripped off. Jel then walked out of the crowd to Steven.

"Did you get the sword?" Jel asked.

"Yep, here it is," Steven said handing the sword to Jel. "It's yours now."

"Oh sweet! thank you, Steven!" Jel said excitedly from the present.

"No problem, we didn't have to spend a single penny," Steven said with a big smirk. "Okay, now let's go shop for some food!"

"Okay! Coming!" Jel said hurrying after Steven with his new sword in hand.