merchant association

Over the course of the next three days Mo Shan always went to the alchemy association first for the entire morning in order to make potions which could then be sold over the entire afternoon, after which he would spend every gold he made from that in order to buy more purple and blue grasses in his starting village, since he now had the storage bag which could fit unlimited amounts of the same item.

But, even though the potions mostly sold out by the time he made his three hour long walk to the village, he could only make around a thousand potions every morning/ early afternoon over the span of 5-6 hours, which would then be sold for around ten gold coins total. Which meant Mo Shan could only buy around ten gold coins worth of grasses each day before he had to tell the players that he was "fully stocked up" again.

On the second day Mo Shan got a world announcement for being the first player to reach level 10. Which set off another storm in the forums and made his inbox gain several more incoming messages again, which he continued to ignore for now. In total it took Mo Shan a bit over double the amount of time needed to reach level 10 compared to level 5. Which goes to show how much experience was needed to level up and this amount would only increase the higher the levels went.

By now, most of the large powers probably had a wrong impression about alchemy, thinking it could level players way faster than by actual fighting, but in fact the experience gain was quite balanced and alchemists or any other side profession shouldn't make players level faster than the fighting professions.

But Mo Shan was an anomaly in this. Most beginner players would fail their first couple hundred potions and would later stabilize around a 20% success rate for concocting potions. Whilst Mo Shan was basically a grandmaster in an apprentice's skin, getting over 95% success rates on these beginner potions. Which meant that he gained around five times as much experience as normal. Hence the level disparity. Mo Shan even suspected that the second strongest player hadn't even reached level 5 yet!

The game was now 5 days old and Mo Shan knew that the big powers and guilds would soon enough make the connection between the grasses being bought up and the potions being sold, so he felt like the time had come to make some changes and establish himself. But in order to do so he was missing one component…..

His hidden class!

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The next morning…

Opening up his virtual mailbox Mo Shan noticed a couple dozen messages, some being multiple ones by the same person or power whilst others were just rich individual players hoping to get acquainted. Mo Shan had to give it to the big powers for messaging him multiple times, since every message would cost a single silver coin until he replied. The most extravagant one definitely being a player called "brightcry 17", who sent over twenty messages in a row.

Mo Shan replied to all the players whom he knew belonged to tier2 sized and above powers in previous games or from memory. Which meant that these powers and guilds had at least control over a medium sized city in his previous life or in previous games, starting with the player "Brightcry 17" and making his way down the list replying to each one in a similar fashion.

[Mountain: I am not interested in any recruitment efforts for now since none of the major powers can meet my demands. Meet me in Marblesong city at the trading hall by 6PM Boundless time (ask NPC's for the time). Marblesong City is a medium sized city, you can teleport to it for one gold coin from any other medium sized city on the continent.

Note: All the large powers that contacted me are invited, bring lots of gold!]

Though the message might seem arrogant and odd at first, Mo Shan could afford to act like this considering he was the only player above level 5 currently, so those powers should know that missing out meant lagging behind those who did go.

Many powers instantly held emergency meetings in the federation upon receiving the reply and each had to discuss whether to go and which people to send, and also how much gold to bring with them since this was also a battle for face amongst the big powers, the first one of its kind in Boundless!

As for those powers who didn't contact Mo Shan, they would either find out through their connections or miss out and lag behind soon.

But none of this mattered to Mo Shan, he still needed to obtain his hidden class before the meeting which was missing two more components.

So after making potions like he did every morning, Mo Shan posted them all knowing they would sell within an hour and went to the city gates in order to hitch a ride to Marblesong City. Many merchants traveling between the cities offered this service in exchange for some silver coins which paid for their travel expenses. Which meant that instead of a five hour walk Mo Shan made it to Marblesong City within two hours.

Good thing Mo Shan already announced the day before in the village that he wouldn't coming to buy grasses today, or the players would surely be waiting all day.

"Ten bronze coins entry fee" a guard at the city told Mo Shan, who hopped off the merchant's caravan since they had special access.

Mo Shan easily paid the fee knowing the price beforehand and made his way over to the trade hall in this medium sized city, which took considerably longer to reach compared to the small scale city he came from, after which he collected his gold from his sales, which could be done from any city since all trade halls were interconnected.

Right now Mo Shan once again had a bit over ten gold coins on him which would make the next step considerably easier.

Medium sized cities had many more facilities than a small city which barely had the basic crafting profession buildings and some shops and a trade hall, besides the houses for residents and the town hall and such of course.

Medium cities is where the true player experience started and is the starting point for players in order to settle down and gain control over an area.

Players could buy land, construct shops, build houses, create guilds and many more in these cities! But those were not what Mo Shan was here for. He was here for an important item and mainly for the final thing he needed for his hidden class.

Mo Shan had to ask around a bit before he found the building he was standing in front of right now, made out of marble with the large words "merchant alliance" written above the entrance in gold.

Entering the building the old man quickly received stares from lavishly dressed merchants wanting to see what this poor looking old man came here for. The clerk behind a counter also couldn't hide her stare for a second before she composed herself like a professional and addressed the old man who made his way over to her.

"Hello sir, may I ask what this merchant alliance branch can do for you?"

"Yes, I am an adventurer who wishes to become a registered merchant." The old man calmly responded knowing that "adventurer" was the NPC's term for player.

Her eyes instantly lit up upon hearing the words "becoming a registered merchant" and she knew that this old looking poor man might become a wealthy merchant in the future she could only look up to.

In order to become a registered merchant one needed a certain amount of fame, besides the obvious fee.

"Please read this form, after which you can sign this contract if you agree to all the stated terms. The clerk said whilst handing him a pen and two pieces of paper which held all the information he needed. Mo Shan had never gone through this process in his previous life, since he only got world announcements in the later years. So he took his time to read everything, because just hearing about it all might leave out some details that could be important.

As I guessed. Becoming a registered merchant comes with multiple major advantages like cheaper prices for building shops, less taxes on things sold in shops and free access to auctions and other public events.

Becoming a merchant was basically an extension of the lifestyle player's class just like how mages could choose to become fire mages or healers.

Every lifestyle player could choose to join a single lifestyle association. In his previous life Mo Shan chose to join the alchemy association which could be done when one is an apprentice alchemist and reduced or even voided the prices for the renting of alchemy rooms and came with some other added benefits.

Joining the merchant association was considered the hardest one because a player needed a certain amount of fame, which could either be gathered by building up tons of friendly relations with the NPC's, or by getting a world announcement! Hence why these players were so rare in Mo Shan's previous life.

The other requirements for joining the merchant association were merely a five gold coin fee signing some papers which would protect the interests of other merchants so that he couldn't directly counter their businesses in their own turf. Though this only concerned players towards NPC's. Merchant players directly compete with other players' businesses as much as they liked.

Mo Shan quickly filled in the forms and signed his name after which the clerk scanned over them and officially made him a member of the merchant association.

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