A Routine Trip [Solo | Commerce]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

One day, Icyferno found himself in a dilemma.

At the present time, Icyferno was located in Sarum. He had just finished inspecting his spanking new house, made sure all the paperwork (as if the system did not already take care of the 'paperwork' for him) was done, and now it was time to begin locating furniture. In theory, he had all he needed, the basic necessities in every house, already available: The house came with a bedroom, and while it lacked a bed, there was no need for a bed if he was willing and able to sleep on the floor. There was a bathroom, which, while lacking in terms of toiletries such as soap, toilet paper and other stuff like a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, allowed him the ability to empty his bowels in a place where he knew his faeces would not stink up the room. Oh, and was no towel to dry himself off after a shower. A shame. It even came with a restroom, except of course there was no one to use the female section, and it was strange there was something like that in a personal house anyway. There was a garden for him to attempt to copy what all those Farmers were doing, a blank living room which was unfortunately devoid of furniture and would probably never get a television set to house, and a kitchen with no utensils, fridge, or food of any kind. Ideally, it would be a place where a failure of a Chef could attempt to cook, but he was so bad at it, he was beyond a failure. Plus there was only a stove there. There were also a bunch of empty rooms which he had to put things into to make them special, hence allowing to evolve into specialty rooms. All in all, it was essentially a house he had just purchased, which naturally lacked many of the things an ordinary home would have. Thus, he would need to purchase them.

Except, as he quickly found out, there was little in the way of a market in Moon Dance Village for such things. As Adventurers had only recently moved in, there was demand for things which were available only in Londinium and not here, as said goods had yet to arrive. Some were able to craft these missing parts, and coupled with the basic things which were already available for sale here, managed to get by in setting up this village as their base of operations. It was one of the reasons why he chose this place: Rural, fairly peaceful, and had a cool guardian spirit to boot. Of course, it was difficult to choose between a cool guardian spirit and free mountain pears, but the clincher was probably that he did not need to wear thick clothing everywhere here, while he probably needed to do so in Avon.

As a result of this lack of goods in Moon Dance Village, he had two options: Either buy local stuff and live on it until more home goods began to roll in from Londinium, or go back to Londinium to pick up some things, possibly for a lower price since there was no transport costs and middlemen to take into account. Truth be told, the latter option was more enticing, but there was the issue of transportation itself. He could definitely stuff some of those things in his inventory, but how was he to get there and back quickly? It was not like he had a mount yet, despite making a mental note to himself to get one a long, long time ago. He guessed those 'note to self' things were not as useful as they first appeared to be.

~

Word count: 624
Total word count (Swashbuckler): 624 x 0.75 = 468
Notes: N/A

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

But as all things go, this would not be a Commerce thread if there was absolutely nothing related to earnings, right? Remember how there was mention of a dilemma earlier? Well, as it turns out, there was a caravan heading out to Londinium within the next hour, and they had a spot open for a caravan guard to ward off the small beasts that may be attracted to the sounds of travel. While he did not fancy smacking around weak mobs, it was not only free transport to Londinium, he was getting paid to do it! Of course, he would need to be lucky if he could catch another caravan back to Sarum, but if he could do so, then he would have gotten free transport to and fro the two locations, all for the price of intimidating a few weaker mobs, plus a small sum of gold to pay for his time. All in all, it was not a bad deal, hence it was in his best interest to accept and tag along for the ride, for it was probably going to be a lot faster than walking back. Alternatively, he could use [Call of Home], but he would still need transport back to Sarum. Speaking of that skill, he had better set the new location to Moon Dance Village. That would cover his transport back home, which makes this trip even more profitable than before.

So that was what he did. After register the village as his new base of operations, he proceeded to inform the Lander, a middle aged farmer named Ben, that he would take him up on his offer. The farmer, on his part, was overjoyed: Not only was it a strong Adventurer who was accompanying him, that same Adventurer had also accepted the price the farmer initially offered for someone a third of the Adventurer's level. There were two reasons why he would only ask for someone of that level: Firstly, money issues. Farmers did not earn much, so scraping together gold to pay for protection was already difficult enough. That was one of the reasons why Icyferno did not ask for a higher price for the work. He knew the farmer would already have some difficulties paying the current amount, as he also knew full well that the people who live in rural areas, even in the old world, tended to live hand to mouth, with little in the way of savings. Ideally there should have been two or more Adventurers hired for such trips, and this clearly showed the farmer's lack of ability to pay up. Secondly, the journey itself was through a common route used by many other people. While it was not to the extent of heavy traffic, it was not uncommon to see people on foot in transit between areas, and other People of the Land moving goods between places. The farmer could rely on the guards of these people for help in they were in close proximity since both of their goods were at stake. While good for saving money, it was also risky. If his caravan was caught out alone, a single Adventurer may find trouble holding off a horde of enemies.

Being a farmer, most of his goods were obviously fruits and vegetables, with the majority of them currently in season. It was, from Icyferno's point of view, some kind of bad economic judgement. "Hey Ben," he called out, wanting to air his confusion. "Isn't produce that is in season cheaper? Why don't you invest in some freezing storage and keep them until they're out of season? I'm sure that's what many of the businesses do, and it would help you raise the total profits you rake in from the sale."

The farmer merely laughed at his suggestion, and continued to check his goods to make sure everything was securely tied down in the caravan. "Alas, I don't have the money to do such a thing. Even if I sold at a different date, there is also no guarantee that businesses will buy, no? It's not like they don't also have their own stock."

Hmm, he was right on that one. Just another business practice to maximize profits once again, and farmers were powerless to stop it unless they somehow managed to ban together to fight back. They would still have less power than the business which fed the population, though.

The caravan he was travelling in was very, very basic. So basic, that there was not even any form of roof or shelter to protect the goods, and him, should there be heavy rain or thunderstorms of any degree. It was probably a wagon. He did not want to imagine what would happen to the farmer if his produce ended up being rotten if they were so unfortunate as to cross the path of a rain cloud. It appeared his fears were untrue, however, as the last item the farmer placed on the wagon was something which looked similar to a sheet of tarp. It would probably be used to cover the goods in the event of rain, though it would impair his ability to detect threats if he was huddling under it. Still better than getting caught out in the rain, though.

~

Word count: 878
Total word count (Swashbuckler): ( 624 + 878 ) x 0.75 = 1126.5
Notes: N/A

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

The inventory check was complete, the wagon and it's one passenger all set and ready to leave port. Port being the road outside the farmer's house, overlooking a huge field of wheat, potatoes and other stuff, with small orchards of trees next to them. This farmer was probably one of the better off ones, among those that struggle to make ends meet here. He asked if all of these were owned solely by the farmer and his family. Ben shook his head. "There was only one way to survive, and that was to pool our resources to sell in bulk, and at the same time have a wide variety of produce to sell. So if there was ever a decline in the sale of one type of produce, or if there was a disease which only affected some plants, we would all share the burden. If sales go particularly well, then we all share in that joy." Apparently, he was usually the one who sold the produce, alongside another farmer. But this time, since the produce only filled a single wagon, he was going alone.

It was, in a way, kind of noble. How many people in developed countries were able to be this selfless for their neighbour? It was the kind of mindset one could only find in the rural areas of the old world, and similarly, he found the same kind of compassion for others in a poor farmer. Was it perhaps due to the type of environment each of them had? A materialistic, fast environment would probably not be the best place to cultivate a selfless heart. The truth of the matter is, modern kids lacked the basic social skills found in kids from rural areas, simply due to the them not going out and making friends as much as rural kids. Where the poor kids played together and made up their own games, the modern, average kids were often glued to electronic gadgets, mashing away at linear or cliche games. All this contributed to a person with a more apathetic view who would only serve the interests of himself and his friends. In comparison, the rural kid would grow up to be a more community person, which was ironically what modern society was struggling to obtain. Funny, how the things you always wanted are easily obtained by others, but not yourself.

Anyway, the journey set off in earnest, and within a few minutes, he noticed that Moon Dance Village was getting smaller and smaller. Ideally, he would wave to the village, but there was no one to wave back to him. The farmer probably had some friends and family who would wave him off, but to him, it was a routine job. They probably got tired after one or two rounds of waving goodbye, or did not feel the need to do so, assuming they heard the news that there was a strong Adventurer guarding the farmer. They had probably already guessed that Icyferno needed to get to Londinium, so both parties would benefit from the trip.

And he just realized something. He could not use [Call of Home] this time round, because he needed to accompany the farmer and his empty wagon but filled money pouch back to Moon Dance Village. Oh craaaaaapp. There went his plan of teleporting back to his home to install some furniture right away. With the journey time suddenly doubled, he found himself regretting accepting the initial price. Should have asked for double or something. But it was too late now, and he would have to live with the consequences of his short foresight.

~

Word count: 604
Total word count (Swashbuckler): ( 624 + 878 + 604 ) x 0.75 = 1579.5
Notes: N/A

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

As the village faded from their view and hid amongst the trees surrounding it, Icyferno and the farmer fell into silence. It was not like there was much to talk about in the first place: it was through a job that they met, and even without the need to keep up an air of professionalism, chatter and laughter would draws curious mobs, as if the rattling of the wagon as it rolled along the dirt road, the clopping of the brown horse's hooves on the barren ground were not loud enough. Besides, those same sounds also drowned out conversation, and unless they wanted to holler over the noise, or there was something of importance to discuss, they would have no conversation.

And so they rode on in silence, accompanied only by the sounds of travel made by a horse and its wagon, as well as several noises from the forest as the mobs went about their daily business, doing who knows what. He wondered if mobs would be able to train themselves. It would be frightening to see a level 90 slime charging towards him, that was for sure.

While Icyferno would like to do nothing more than fall asleep on such a mundane and ordinary task with little risks, it seems the world simply wanted to watch him do work. As they approached the end of the forest, which would bring them to the main road that led back to Londinium, the bushes next to the dirt road rustled briefly, and out jumped three [Tanuki]. While this was, personally, the first time he had physically laid eyes upon the [Tanuki], the beast itself was not much of a concern for him. Small, and Japan's definition of a raccoon, these furry little creatures were usually far from hostile, and was in fact a popular choice for a prankster pet that was not too difficult to befriend, as long as you had their favorite food. Usually, if there was no need to fight, he would simply circumvent them, since durability was a thing and the experience points to be gained from such mobs were not exactly worth the annoying fight. They were probably drawn in by the smell of the fresh produce anyway, which, now that it was mentioned, was kind of irritating to his nose when the smell was all blended together. [Tanuki], while fairly weak, was highly mobile, able to dart in and out of melee range at a moment's notice. Thankfully, they would not attack. Right?

But then the horse accidentally stepped on one of their tails.

Icyferno had no idea how it happened. It just... did, like most accidents do. A careless misstep, resulting in the three [Tanuki] quickly turning hostile. Within a second after the horse accidentally stepped on one of the [Tanuki]'s tail, one of its comrades immediately launched itself at the farmer, fangs bared as wind gathered on the tips of its elongated teeth which were poised to strike the farmer's neck...

... Only to be a met with a short throwing knife to the mouth, one carrying the symbol of Leo. Obviously, Icyferno could not suddenly teleport in front of the farmer to protect him, so the next best thing was to disrupt the enemy's attack with a ranged attack of his own. Damn, I don't want to lose weapon durability on this type of weak mobs, he thought as the [Tanuki] stepped back, their fangs bared as their one companion tried to dislodge the knife from its throat, making gasping and whimpering noises as it did so. Being a much weaker creature, that one hit had already dropped its health by more than half. It was already at Death's door, and Death was usually nice enough to not let guests wait outside for long.

"Skuggi." With that single command, the [Ripper Jack] was summoned, and it was not pleased. It lived for adventure, for exploration! And what was it doing? An ordinary guard job. It knew that it was impossible to always be on an exciting journey, that setting up a home to return to was important, but this was simply a waste of time. If they had rented a horse of their own, they would be able to quickly move to Londinium and back, and be off to do other things. Then again, money, which was once not an issue, has increasingly become a prevalent one with the changes in the economy. Skuggi knew not what it was that manipulated the driving forces of the economy, but it was most definitely unkind to not just Icyferno, but to all. So if there were places that they could save money in, they should. And that also involved Skuggi clearing out the [Tanuki] so that loss in weapon durability was minimized.

Sometimes, Skuggi really hated grinding.

~

Word count: 802
Total word count (Swashbuckler): ( 624 + 878 + 604 + 802 ) x 0.75 = 2181
Notes: N/A

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

Usually, one versus three was a cause for concern to the one. But in this scenario, the one was thrice the level of the foes it was fighting, with their total level being around its single level. Given the game nature of the environment, it was obvious who would win. After a minute of clashing, the result was two dead [Tanuki], and one fleeing [Tanuki] which was quickly impaled by Aquarius. While Icyferno would probably be right in assuming that it was fleeing for its life, it would not do if it came to attack them again, with much in the way of reinforcements. He was confident they could take on a bunch of [Tanuki], but he was not certain if he could do so while protecting a fragile person such as Ben, the farmer, who was only level 6 and could probably only take two or three hits before succumbing to his wounds. He was no healing class, so if the farmer died, he could not revive him, assuming that would work on a Person of the Land in the first place. It would be painful to return alone, with whatever remained of Ben and his cargo, and pass it off to his family and friends. It was a burden he could not risk taking up, for he knew he was not able to take its weight.

The farmer, on his part, was stunned. It was probably because the man had never seen a stronger Adventurer before, so seeing opponents like the [Tanuki] being utterly annihilated was probably a shock for him. He was probably more used to having an Adventurer or two struggle for a minute or two with the nimble beasts before finally shaking them, allowing them to go on their way. What happened here was that the [Tanuki] were simply killed off in a matter of seconds. There was no skill, no tactics involved. Just a direct massacre, clean and simple. As the bubbles from the [Tanuki] corpses faded. Icyferno hopped back on board as though nothing had happened, and said, "now that that's settled, let's continue. Do be careful of where the horse is trodding on, though." Ben could only nod and urge the horse forward once more. He was probably thinking, would all Adventurers grow up to be this scary?

The wagon made it out of the rest of the Moon Dance forest without any incident, which was in line with regular routines, as using a frequently travelled route meant that mobs would already know to steer clear to avoid having their lives ending prematurely. In fact, once they hit the main road, they could not even see a single mob appearing, even in the distance. They did, however, pass by several other caravans and wagons. It seems old Ben knew most of them, as Icyferno noticed him nodding or waving in greeting to the other party, who reciprocrated the gesture. But for Icyferno, who was only doing this job for the ground travelled and had never taken such a job before, he merely sat apathetically at the back as the scenery passed him by, the landscape slowly changing from the fields of Sarum to the trees of Londinium, as the city slowly came into sight.

After the Adventurers began making waves with their surge of new inventions, traffic had steadily poured into Londinium, and trade boomed in the city. There was already a queue formed to enter the city, as People of the Land officials checked through the goods to make sure there was nothing malicious. Usually, it was mostly just for formality's sake; a simple gesture to make sure that they were not trying to do human trafficking or any of the sort. While they would have usually weeded out many things in the past, with the most studious of the Adventurers demanding everything from the most poisonous mushroom to the smelliest goblin poop, there was little that they could do. Even in the aftermath of the Londinium attacks, things had not changed that much for them.

As they joined the queue, Icyferno looked at what the other wagons and caravans held. Most of the goods were covered with sheets of cloth made of various materials and having a variety of colors, unfortunately, so he would probably only see the goods of the one in front of the wagon he was on as they were uncovered for inspection. Due to the nature of the inspection, the queue moved quickly, and within a few minutes of waiting, he got to see exactly that. The contents of the wagon in front of him was mostly farm produce, much like the one he was on. It was a subtle reminder of competitors, a cruel fact of an economy which revolves around money.

Anyway, it was soon their turn, and after a brief inspection, they were free to enter Londinium.

~

Word count: 814
Total word count (Swashbuckler): ( 624 + 878 + 604 + 802 + 814 ) x 0.75 = 2791.5
Notes: N/A

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

As they passed through the gates of Londinium, he was once again reminded of the smells and sights of the bustling city, a far cry from the desolate place it had begun as when they were first introduced here. A little further ahead, he saw Adventurers teleporting into the city with [Call of Home], a feature he himself had used very often. But now that he was living in Moon Dance village, perhaps he would come here less, especially once the market takes hold and stabilizes there. Then again, he still had a shop to tend to here, unless he was going to move that over to Moon Dance village as well. He wondered if it would even be 'just a village' next year. Probably a town, at least.

Once they were through the gates, Icyferno decided it was time to depart from the farmer to do his own purchasing. He told the farmer that he was going to be off for a bit, and after trading some words, agreed to meet the farmer back at the gate in ninety minutes, or an hour and a half.

So off he went to the nearest place which he remembered that sold furniture. His first order of business was obviously to purchase bedding, and other stuff like tables and chairs, maybe a few decorations as well to fill up the rest of the space, as well as the necessary equipment to make the specialty rooms specialized. It was honestly a lot of stuff, and hence it was fortunate that he had a magic bag that he could magically stuff all those things into. Since he was in a somewhat Japanese village, which did not even make sense because this was not the server for that, he decided to buy things more in line with that theme, and given that the game's roots lay in Japan, the people were obviously going to sell those themes. Of course, that was mostly for decorative items. He was probably going to get a regular bed and bed frame, as well as a tall table and chair so he could avoid kneeling on the floor so much. He also played a certain gacha which gave him a lot of queer items to decorate his house with. He had no idea how this thing in his inventory could install an onsen in his home though, but it sounded cool.

All in all, once he was done with his purchases, he rushed back to the gate, clearing the ninety minute mark by more than ten minutes. Ben the farmer was already waiting there, chatting to some farmer friends of his on whatever it was farmers talked about these days. As he approached, Ben noticed him and quickly ended the conversation, and made to get ready. Icyferno apologized for being later than Ben, but Ben waved it off. "It's not like you're late or anything, I was just done with sales earlier than expected. Seems demand for fresh produce is going up with winter coming again."

That was definitely true. Fresh things like the kind Ben sold were more of a rarity in winter, where the cold weather conditions made it more difficult to grow them. With Adventurers being used to having whatever food they wanted whenever they wanted due to globalization in the past, however, their demand naturally did not wane as much as the People of the Land, hence the large demand. As if to confirm Ben's words, when Icyferno hopped onto the wagon, the bulky produce was gone; all that was left was the tarp.

As the wagon began to move, he looked at the sky. The morning had already been spent, and he estimated that by the time they got back, it would be evening. Visibility would deteriorate towards the end, and so he would need to be more vigilant at that time. He also had a feeling he was going to have to sleep on the floor today.

~

Word count: 663
Total word count (Swashbuckler): ( 624 + 878 + 604 + 802 + 814 + 663 ) x 0.75 = 3288.75
Notes: N/A[/quote]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

The journey back was uneventful.

That was all that he could describe it as. He had already passed the scenery quite recently, which was earlier in the morning, while on the way here. The only noticeable difference would be that the afternoon was hot and sweltering, while the morning was cloudy and much more cooling. There were, unlike before, no mobs that disturbed them on the way back, though it was unlikely that they even knew of what happened to the three [Tanuki] who ambushed them earlier.

There was still some traffic on the road though. Some were like Ben, heading back to their homes after a day of sales and bartering. He noted that several of the wagons still had some goods left in them. He guessed that they were not so fortunate that they could sell all of them. It was probably something they were used to, but it did not mean that they could be used to the harshness of life that would come since they were unable to hit their target amount of gold. Especially since winter was coming, they would probably need that gold to keep themselves warm and fed throughout winter. Without that gold, they may be forced to chop firewood in the freezing cold, or nibble on frozen potatoes to survive. That, or it held some necessities they needed. Who knows? It was not like he had x-ray vision.

Others still were people still heading towards Londinium. There were no more farmers though. If they were caught up for whatever reason, they would likely postpone their trip to the next day, since paying for a night at an inn in town was, to them, an unnecessary expense. The travelers heading to Londinium appeared to be traders of sorts. People who dealt in things other than food, and had likely already established a residence in Londinium or were wealthy enough to not mind paying for a night at a local inn. They lived in a world of luxury, making a profit off of those below them. Was it fair? Probably not, at least to the farmers. Why should mere middlemen, who mostly only owned a bunch of warehouses, live in comfort while the farmers toiled the fields to fill those warehouses? The world was always unfair, just like how the Adventurers were bestowed with power and came with knowledge unlike anything the People of the Land had ever seen before.

The red evening sun sat upon its throne in the horizon when they finally made it back to Moon Dance village that day. As they reached Ben's home, Icyferno jumped off the wagon and looked at Ben expectedly. Ben sighed. "Well, Adventurer, you've certainly earned your gold. If you're ever in the mood for guarding another wagon, do give me a ring. Goodness knows I always need someone to look out for me on the road to Londinium." Ben dug out a pouch which jingled with the promise of coin from his pockets, and passed it to Icyferno. As the Swashbuckler took the money, Ben's words suddenly reminded him of the player killers he encountered very early into his journey here. He nodded once to Ben and turned away, and as he left, he said aloud. "Wild game isn't the only thing out in those woods." He did not know if Ben would understand, but it did not matter to him. In the end, Ben was just another Person of the Land, and this was no fairy tale where everyone could have a happy ending. To be able to live and breathe, sharing in the joy of family, and then pass away to the sorrow of others, that was the life of someone like Ben. He wondered if that would have been his life if he had come here. Would he just be another office worker, slogging away until he retired and later pass away? Probably. But fate had given him the power to make a difference here, and as he returned to his new house, he wondered how this would all end.

~

Word count: 679
Total word count (Swashbuckler): ( 624 + 878 + 604 + 802 + 814 + 663 + 679 ) x 0.75 = 3798
Gold earned: 5064 x 0.25 = 1266
Notes: N/A