"What?!" he quickly yelped. "How could I do that, that's direct competition!"
"Right, hear me out," I replied calmly. "You run the stall, after I've paid for all of the items, and sell them at fifteen copper, I'll give you a cut of one copper per. Try it for a day or two, if it doesn't do anything, I'll pay you ten copper per day for the hassle."
It was a reasonable offer, seeing as most NPCs could get by on a couple copper a day. A single rabbit was plenty of meat for one person to feed themselves, so ten copper was quite a sizeable daily-wage. I figured the bandana I purchased for ten was at least eight copper in manufacturing costs, so that left two copper profit for the man selling it. After sitting on them for who knows how long, the profit wasn't that great.
"Wait, so you're going to buy all of my items, then ask me to resell it?" he asked, slightly angry. "Do you realize what you're asking of me?"
"I do, but it's because you don't trust my marketing sense," I said plainly. "I'll buy all of those items, and instead of sitting behind the door inside the store, you can move and sit in front of the door, outside. You're making profit on what… at least a hundred items? And you're free to get customers to come inside to buy other goods, and I'll also pay you for every item sold. I'm trusting you with the coin purse at the end of the day."
"This is insane, you're insane," he stated, bewildered.
Pulling out my coin pouch, I eyed the seven silver plus some loose copper coins that were inside. I could afford at least seventy of his items, but if I needed more money I could sell some of the loot from the dungeon. Nodding my head after I had convinced myself to take the gamble, I placed the open pouch in the man's hands.
"I'll take as many items as that pouch can satisfy," I followed up. "And if you've still got more items left over, I'll come back with more coin."
The man greedily eyed the silver and copper as he hesitated to turn me away.
He didn't believe in my idea, nor did he trust me to come through with my plan but money meant more than words. Hard money moved men while words simply swayed them. That was something every business man or woman knew, as fact.
"Do we have a deal?" I asked succinctly.
"Uh-h, yeah, sure, why not?" he replied with uncertainty. "You'll pay me ten copper when this fails, right? No returns on these goods either, got it?"
"Yeah, that's fine," I said while nodding.
I was positive I would turn a profit here, and if I didn’t… well, the residents of Dragon's Breach were all going to receive a nice new gift for the upcoming winter.
I didn't believe in a losing situation.
Chapter 45: Pugs
(Saturday, May 29th Game Day / Friday, February 19th Real Day)
I found myself standing in front of the dungeon entrance once more, checking out the groups of players assembled just a few feet from the portal. They wore gear similar to mine, leather and furs with some light cloth here and there, with an assortment of weapons from spears, bows, to staves. It was just another typical scene of mismatched riffraff standing around waiting for something to happen.
Well, I wasn't much better.
Two of the three groups were already full going by body count, so I made my way towards the only one left that appeared to have four members lined up. There was a good chance I could fill whatever void they were missing, so long as they didn't need a healer. The only thing really bothering me was if they were experienced enough to get through the first and second floors. A first time group grinding out the first floor at a slow plod would be hard to bear… but, everyone had a first time, at some point.
There was little reason to be elitist this early in the game, anyways.
"Hey are you guys looking for a fifth?" I asked the group, directing my question at no one in particular. All four of the males turned their heads to eye my gear as I approached, while I returned the same gaze. They weren't equipped with anything special, though the archer did appear to have a decent bow slightly better than my own.
Otherwise, it was a standard group.
"Can you tank?" asked the archer bluntly.
"Yeah, I can tank."
As I said that, I pulled out my one-handed axe and rotated the shield off my back. Raising it in front of the man so he could see it clearly, I nodded at him as he turned around and started to walk away. "What floor are you guys on?" I followed up, hoping to gain some sort of information before committing.
"Let's go, I'm tired of waiting," said the archer as he looked at the healer. "Invite him, lets hurry this up. We're running out of time."
Without bothering to answer my question, the archer walked through the portal and disappeared as he was transported into the dungeon. Not more than a second later, I received an invite from the healer of the group as the other two mages continued to talk amongst themselves. I looked at the healer to see if he would respond to my query, but he simply turned around and entered the dungeon as well and then, so too did the two casters.
"Right," I muttered to myself while letting out a sigh. "Social group of kids I got here." Before accepting the invite, I looked around once more to see if another group happened to be approaching on the horizon.
To my dismay there was no such luck.
I was stuck with this pick-up group if I wanted to enter.
Oh well, have to roll the dice sometimes.
Accepting the invite, I shook my head and sighed once more before stepping forth into the cold muddiness of the portal that transported me from the pleasant outdoors to the stifling, dreary and dank interior of the mining complex.
The home of the Outcast Goblins… a joyous adventure, filled with all the rancid odors one could think of along with all the ash one could choke on.
A lovely place, this dungeon was.
The only thing better, was this lovely party of mine.
Well, maybe that was too harsh.
They were simply anti-social and lacked etiquette, which wasn't too unusual seeing as they all looked to be in their late teens to early twenties, at least as far as their character appearance went. I didn't really have much to go on but, there were trends with player behavior online and within games, to the point where it was rather predictable after a while. Yeah, as long as we could clear the first floor at a reasonable pace, I wouldn't have any real complaints.
Everyone had their moody days anyhow.
But as soon as I caught up with the party of four that had positioned just slightly out of range of the first group of goblins, the archer drew his bow and fired off a shot. Without even taking a pause to see if I was ready, or to consult or discuss group strategy, he pulled and stood there waiting for me to take aggro off of him.
This stupid son of a bitch, I thought to myself as I hurriedly dashed in front of the group and began to cast a [Chain Lightning]. With only seconds to spare I rushed the cast and skipped the chanted verse, drastically lowering the amount of damage of the spell and in turn, lowering my ability to maintain threat in the long run.
As the five goblins continued their charge with swords waving in the air and high-pitched screams accompanying them, they were hit with my lightning and immediately went silent. Momentarily frozen in place, as if they had run into a wall, the disoriented goblins pulled themselves together as I grabbed my one-handed axe from its sling on my waist. Raising my shield and axe to meet their charge, I swung down at the first goblin in an attempt to catch it off-guard.
The swing was a miss as the reach was so much shorter than I was used to, and just as I tried to bring the axe back, a sword slash came down across my face, nearly slicing my nose in two. Reactively jerking my head back and lifting my shield in-turn, the second slash of another goblin was easily deflected.
But before I could even prepare for a counter attack, two [Fireballs] exploded in my vicinity as the first goblin took minor damage and flames licked my face. My eyebrows singed, I pulled back and attempted to turn the goblins to the side so I would be out of the firing line, yet before I could even gain position, an arrow found itself lodged into the back of my shoulder.