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Chapter 30 – Market Research
It was two days after Allen had secured four day’s worth of firewood. Allen was heading to the residential area for another round of shopping. He was thinking of going shopping every 2 or 3 days, in the morning, because Kurena came over in the afternoons.
He let Theresia and Rodan decide how they would use the meat from the 16 Albaheron. Last time, he bought some mormos without saying anything. Mash really enjoyed them. Allen wanted Theresia to have as much nutrition as possible, for her future child.
He hoisted 20 pounds of Albaheron meat on his back, and put on thick straw-woven shoes. In the winter, it was too cold to wear sandals. Also, the melted snow would get into them. And because he was wearing tattered clothes, it was cold.
It took an hour to reach the commercial district, which was just a few shops clustered together in the village center.
(Since Gerda’s not here today, I think I’ll do some research.)
It was his second time shopping, and he came alone.
He entered the salt shop. He had bought salt last time, but it wasn’t enough. They needed to have a stockpile of it.
He gave the blunt shopkeep 10 pounds of meat. Same as last time, he weighed it in silence. Allen watched silently, and got the same response as last time.
“10 scoops.”
“That would be good, thanks.”
Allen gave the shopkeep a wooden box, and the shopkeep used a tablespoon to measure the salt.
“Thank you very much. How much would this cost to buy?”
“Ah? 5 silver.”
(Hoho, I see.)
Next, he went to the grocer. Like last time, the firewood would come last because it was the heaviest.
“I’d like to exchange this meat for fruit please.”
“Okay, what would you like?”
(There’s a lot of types of fruit.)
Allen pointed to a yellow, peach-like fruit that he didn’t normally eat.
“What’s this?”
“That’s expensive. One for one poponut.”
(Uwa! Poponuts are expensive. Should I just get mormos like usual?)
Allen bought mormos this time as well. He told himself they were for Mash, but he also had a sweet tooth.
“Ah, right. How much would it cost to buy these with money?”
The aunty was friendly, so she answered all his questions. From the conversation, Allen got an idea of how much things cost, based on his recent purchases.
The following are of equal value:
・1 chunk of Albaheron meat (around 2 pounds)
・2 scoops of salt (around 30 grams)
・4 mormos
・1 poponut
・4 days worth of firewood (around 120 pounds)
Salt and fruits were quite expensive because they went through merchants. The owner of the grocery also taught Allen about coins.
The following are of equal value:
・1 gold coin
・100 silver coins
・1,000 copper coins
・10,000 iron coins
Allen was trying to figure out the market prices, and the value of money, so that he could turn his entire family into commoners. According to Gerda, he needed 50 gold coins.
He found out at the salt shop that 1 chunk of Albaheron meat was worth around 1 silver coin. Since he could get 10 chunks of meat from an Albaheron, he calculated how many he needed to kill to get 50 gold coins.
(I would only need to kill 500 Albaheron… If I start from October next year, I could reach 50 gold in a few years.)
When Allen was Kenichi, he was always hunting monsters in games. Kenichi, a hardcore gamer, thought that it’d be quick work to get 500 kills. Depending on the game, he could kill over 10,000 monsters an hour.
Now that he understood the market somewhat, he headed for the firewood shop. Along the way, he saw the apothecary, and a weapons shop.
Looking at the apothecary, Allen saw a bunch of stuff that looked like medicinal herbs. He had seen the shop the other day, but couldn’t make a detour because he was with Gerda. He went inside.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes, welcome.”
Various plants were on display. At the back of the store was a lady who was quite old.
“Are there any medicines that can restore magic power?”
“Huh? Very funny, kid. I don’t have anything that expensive.”
She said that she only had herbs for wounds and fevers.
“Is that so…”
(I see. So an MP potion exists, but it’s expensive. I won’t be able to afford it until I earn some money.)
When he fought his first Albaheron, one of his Beast F’s was defeated. When a summon was defeated, its buff disappeared too. If a strong enemy appeared, and he ended up in a pinch, the more summons that got killed, the worse his situation got. That’s why he came to check if there was an MP potion.
Although he was just looking around, he didn’t get kicked out. Even though he was a 6-year-old boy in rags that didn’t look like he had any money.
(Doesn’t seem like she’ll kick me out… But then again, that was the same with the salt shop, the grocery, and the firewood shop.)
Presumably, it was commoners that ran the shops, but they didn’t discriminate against serfs.
“Which one is the wound medicine?”
“Ah, there.”
He was given a blunt answer. Allen looked at the dried herbs the old lady mentioned, wondering if everyone in this world was so straightforward.
(I see. Come to think of it, can I have pictures in my notes?)
He had never tried it before. He tried to memorize the shape of the dried herb, and tried to transfer it into the grimoire. It showed up as a sketch.
(Ohhh! I worked!! I should try more things.)
The notes section of the grimoire was divided into multiple sections, for things such as investigation results, hypotheses, his diary, and memories from the real world. Allen wanted to add a section for field notes. He was going to record the details of the herbs one by one, just in case.
Right now, as a serf, he wasn’t allowed to leave the village freely. But one day, he would be able to go looking for herbs.
While thinking about how he could identify herbs using his notes, he remembered the herb that saved Rodan’s life.
“By the way, do you have any Müllersworts?”
“Hah!? No way, kid. You can’t afford that!”
The owner of the apothecary was suddenly in a bad mood. Allen was caught off guard, and wondered why her attitude had changed.
“S-sorry.”
“Ah, no, I’m sorry. I just remembered something bad.”
“Oh, really? Was it from a month and a half ago?”
(Hm? I heard that my dad was saved by the Müllerswort. I wonder what happened?)
Allen had only heard from Gerda that he had bought Müllerswort from the apothecary and used it on Rodan.
The owner of the apothecary told Allen about that time, a month and a half ago.
A man named Gerda came running into the shop just before dusk, asking for her best medicine. He had a fearsome, almost frightening expression.
The shop owner had a Müllerswort, but it cost 5 gold. Gerda had said that he would pay 3 gold for it at a later date.
He said that he couldn’t do more than 3 gold coins. Although he had said that he would pay later, it didn’t look like he would have 3 gold coins.
“He said that, if he didn’t bring 3 gold coins the next day, he’d sell himself to slavery to pay for it.”
Then, he got on his knees in the shop, pleading to save the life of his best friend. So, she decided that she would sell it for only 3 gold coins, and that it was okay for him to pay later. And in fact, the next day, he did bring 3 gold coins.
“In the lord’s city you could sell it for 5 gold. I was planning on selling it the next time a merchant came by, but instead, I took a big loss.”
The owner cursed because she had lost a lot of money. Allen answered with a “Is that so…”. She told Allen that she didn’t have any more for sale, but if she did, it would cost him 5 gold.
That was the entire story.
Allen put down his backpack, and took a chunk of Albaheron meat and put it on the counter.
“Hm? What would you like to trade for?”
“No, I’m giving it to you.”
“Ah? What are you talking about?”
The owner of the apothecary looked like she didn’t understand what he was saying. She had a lot of wrinkles to begin with, but now her brow had even more.
“Thank you for giving the herb away. It was used to help my dad. This is my way of thanking you. Really, thank you very much.”
Allen bowed deeply and thanked the shop owner. She looked at him, like “eh?”
Then, everytime he came shopping, he brought an extra chunk of meat. After the third time she told him that it was okay.
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
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