Golden Ferry

When I finally got back into the game after folding the house's regular clothes for the week it was late in the afternoon or early in the evening from the looks of the sky outside the inn hallway when I logged back in. Inside the room was a stressful and noisily pacing and mumbling Lana. The wolf hound was lying on the bed closest to the door just watching her.

When I opened the door she whipped around and shouted, "Where have you been?! You've been out all day with nothing but a note and I still have to go see my aunt but it's simply far too late in the day to trouble the poor woman with something like this."

"Her brother and sister, your parents, and her niece, you, were attacked by goblins," I say bluntly. "There's never a good time in the day to tell somebody about that."

Clearing her throat softly, Lana says, "Well, grand aunt really, so her niece and nephew in law as well and grand niece. See, her life hasn't been all that great either. When I was a kid she lost her husband and son when their trading caravan was raided by outlaws. So, some time around noon when she probably won't be busy but also won't be getting ready for bed would be the right time!"

"You're right, it's my fault and I'm sorry, but it's not something I can control," I sigh sadly. "Sometimes everyday but mostly every few days I will simply vanish like that. that's basically how I sleep and you're going to be hearing about a lot more people like me from all the different races soon enough. Now, will you be alright here for another night or should I pay for it?"

"Take me hunting with you," she demands as some form of reply as if that was how it worked.

"Yeah, no," I say flatly. "It's too dangerous to take you hunting right now, I'll take you hunting in the morning but tonight I have plans to make a party and do some special goblin hunting. I really am sorry, but maybe after a few days we can go night hunting together when you're more experienced. Do you need anything before I go?"

"No," she huffs sadly, sitting on the bed next to the dog. "I might not be able to do anything like hunting for a while after I go to my aunt's. How long… will you be around for?"

From level ten to eleven was another eleven hundred after ten's before reaching level twelve took twelve hundred. The scale continued like this until level thirty when enemies start dropping three-digit experience values. If I camped out for a week straight without doing any quests, I could probably make level twenty by dinner time. In reality.

If I was alone, anyway. With a party of actual players there would be more mobs in confrontations but there would still be more competition for experience and loot. So it would probably take slightly longer.

"I'm really not sure," I reply after careful consideration. "Right now I'm in a lumbering and hunting region but I prefer metalwork, so from here I will probably head somewhere with mines and monsters when I'm stronger. But I found this Elder Oak Passage place the other night where this really old and powerful knight will let me fight endless goblins. He'll be there for around two months and the goblins carry these weapons from from the tree's roots and the roots a a B grade material."

To emphasize my point, I took an elder root club from my inventory and tossed the seven-pound solid wood weapon to her. Her Strength was ten, now, which was what I started with so I was confident she could catch it. And she did.

"Wow, if you made wands or transmuted staves from a few of these they'd be worth a lot," Lana remarks after appraising the item in her hands. "Goblins are using these?"

"Like clubs," I reply with a laugh, dropping more of these five-damage weapons on the floor as if they were trash. "There's four more of them, now you have five to do whatever you want with. Call it my apology for not being a very good friend to you."

Looking oddly guilty with a slight pout and even some redness around her high cheek bones, Lana mumbles, "You saved my life… you're the best kind of friend."

If this were anyone else, I might have asked if that came with benefits. Since it was her, I could only think of asking if that came with clean underwear before shaking my head to clear my thoughts. "I'm sorry, that caught me by surprise, but thank you very much for those considerations. Now, please get some rest," I add while awkwardly leaving the room.

Checking that my party was still open, I check to see if tragedy person was online yet only to find they were as inactive as when I added them. Then I open the party channel and say, "Role call."

Everybody who was online quickly responded and I spent the next ten minutes going over reports of who was where. Since one of us was already in the south city some of the others decided to split up and carry them up north while two of the others came to Sierra. There were now too many people to get a discount at the smithy.

The two people with us were a pair of healer-support types, one a paladin and the other his druid daughter who had already been playing the game for a few reality days. The father had already paid real money to get their equipment up to date, giving them both weapons and armor stronger than mine. Then again, that was his privilege to spoil his twelve-year-old.

Since everybody in Sierra was already together and doing their day shopping before the stores were closing, I decided to ask for directions to some supply depots and the like. When I ended up at a chamber of commerce kind of building that dealt in bulk deals, though, I found myself having a hard time getting anywhere.

First, the pretty older lady I ended up speaking with asked if I had any appointments and seemed slightly unhappy when I said no. "Do you represent a merchant group of some form? What was it you wished to buy, sell, or trade?"

Feeling slightly annoyed with myself for ending up in this position, I look off to the side and complain, "First, I'm sorry. I asked for directions to a place that dealt in bulk crafting materials and I ended up somewhere that I'm not entirely sure about. I'm sorry if I am wasting your time but I was hoping to get an appraisal for these and see what their trade value for bulk iron and other materials was," I explain with a mental smile, constantly lowering the lady's expectation's until I finally placed an elder root club on the counter in front of her.

When she saw the club the lady's steadily forming scowl came to fruition and she opened her mouth to say something while reaching for the club. Then, when her hand closed around the handle she stopped and looked down in shock. Then she quickly sat back down and started looking over the crude weapon in her hands.

After taking out a few tools like a scale and a black crystal ball that attracted the attention of other clerks and patrons, the lady seemed to take measurements solely by touch before standing up again with a brisk and professional attitude while cleaning her area. "Please follow me to the end," she then says before walking off behind the counter.

Meeting the clerk at the end of the counter, she opens a half-door in the tall counter to let me through before wordlessly leading me deeper into the building. Two hallways and one turn away from the lobby later, we came to a short corridor of open doors of what looked like small meeting rooms. The doors were solid hardwood and at least three inches thick, ensuring privacy to some extent.

Gesturing me into the first room we came to and closing the door behind us, the clerk did not even sit down before handing the club back to me. Not letting go when I tried to accept the club, the clerk looks me dead in my eyes with the most serious face in the world as she says, "What you're holding in your hands is three hundred gold worth of B grade alchemy material that can be used in everything from furniture to magical arms and armor. We can get you more than that in both gold and trade values if you bring this business to us. How much do you have?"

"For now, ten, but I have stipulations," I say just as seriously. "First, five of them have to be converted into into weapons or magic tools and the other five have to be auctioned individually. As well, I want to meet the alchemist you guys have work the material. The five you guys sell as pre-fabricated items I'm directly selling to the company while I am auctioning the other five personally. After this there won't be these stipulations, or I shouldn't need them, but if you can agree then we have a deal."

"I can agree to everything but the alchemist," she says after letting go of the club as if in admission of defeat. "If you continue doing business with us, these initial stipulations will simply be viewed as a trust test. However, our alchemists are all powerful people and people with literal and metaphorical power can be eccentric. There is still a chance he will want to meet the source of this material to get some for himself, though. He's greedy like that."

"Then tell him I said I'll sell five directly to the company for them to craft and experiment with while studying profit values if he meets with me," I say with a deadpan voice. "If he's eccentric, just take advantage of it. Take this club and show it to him, he'll come to me to make sure he gets the crafting experience before thinking of his own projects."

"I will be right back," she replies calmly, taking the club from me once again before leaving the room while I take a seat.

Fifteen minutes later there were footsteps outside in the hallway and then the door was knocked on twice before opening. After the pretty clerk lady opened the door, a short and somewhat elderly man wearing layers of silken robes in various shades of white, gray, and black walk in and sits across the table from me. In his hand was an elder root club.

Sliding the club down the short rectangular table to me, the man says, "You have my attention."

"The paperwork we talked about, ma'am?" I ask toward the clerk still in the doorway.

"Right away, sir," she replies before briskly leaving the room.

Returning my attention to the old man, I say, "I have more of these and I can get more of these. For now, I want to try to make a deal with you. Three clubs for three favors. First, make and enchant a pair of wooden swords for me. Second, teach me the basics of magic and alchemy as quickly as you can. Lastly, help me enchant the swords I make for myself afterward."

"Two swords, two very vague educations, and another set of enchantments," the old man replies without even blinking. "That's asking a lot. Three hunks of magic wood have an estimated bottom value of nine hundred gold. I get paid one hundred gold to appraise rare materials. I get paid a club per enchantment on a regular basis because I'm the highest grade alchemist in this building. There's no meat on this bone you think you're throwing me, boy."

"Three clubs, free experience manufacturing and working the magic of those clubs, and a continued business relationship with someone who has the potential to continue getting their hands on rare materials," I clarify calmly. "One club is enough mass to make a wooden sword like this with alchemy," I continue, retrieving my only remaining Bokuto from my player inventory. "Of course, yours will be much nicer, this is just a practice tool of mine. Plus, three clubs are not simply three clubs.

"In your hands," I continue somewhat dramatically, sliding the club back to him for emphasis and distraction. "One club is as many as four simple highly conductive wands dressed with some pretty magic metal worth twice as much as the original material. Apiece. One club, in your hands, makes a wooden sword that could break shields or cast devastating magic worth maybe a thousand gold. These are not simply three clubs, my good man, these are three clubs in the hands of the best alchemist I can find."

I had to make sure to kiss his ass just that extra little bit at the end there, making him smirk down at the club he had been toying with while listening to my charade. Finally, he just shrugs and says, "Four clubs and I'll put this old back into it."

"Gladly," I reply, getting up and coming around the table to offer my hand.

[Peddling Leveled x2]

[+30XP]

[You have developed affinity with Ferithar, the Grand Alchemist of the Potlatch Golden Ferry Chamber of Commerce. Current Affinity: 62%, +12%]

Just as we started discussing when to do my magic lessons, the clerk returned with a thin stack of thick papers. After signing the paperwork, I out nineteen of the forty-nine clubs still in my inventory and say, "Ten for the previous deal, three more to my good man here, and six more for material trades. I need the most you can get out of two clubs for iron, two clubs of arcanite, and two clubs of vanium"

As much as I honestly wanted to outright sell all of the clubs in my inventory for the sake of having grandfather gold after the currency switch, I had no idea what the drop rate on this obviously high-level material was and I only had so much time to access it.

"That should be fairly simple," the clerk says after a few seconds of being caught off guard. "You did originally come here for material trades. Let me get some new paperwork," she adds before leaving the room again.

"So, about those swords?" Ferithar suddenly asks, bringing my attention back to our dealings. "I can awaken your magic for you now but your lessons will have to wait until the day after tomorrow. As well, I can make those swords here and now if you'd like."

Taking out two more clubs, I slide them to the old man who already made four disappear into his sleeves, "Please, by all means, and don't worry about taking your time since it will raise the value of the items the Golden Ferry sells after you make them."

*