Chapter 69

[You have successfully created an angled bow].
“Done!”
Ming Hu exclaimed in delight at the success message, hugging the angled bow.
“It must be pretty high, right?”
Ming Hu opened the skill window to check his proficiency in armor crafting.
<Strong – Armor Crafting
Level: 4
Proficiency: 21
Create a mugu.
Brings up the Armor Crafting window when used.
It wasn't enough to satisfy him, but it was certainly more than he'd gotten when he'd forged the sword. With a look of 'this is good enough' on his face, Ming Hu opened his inventory and added an angled bow.
"Ha, it's finally over."
His inventory was filled with hundreds of swords and bows.
"…it was pretty hard"
Ming Hu's equipment totaled 900 pieces, including 780 swords and 120 bows. With a proud smile on his face, Ming Hu pulled out a traveling scroll. Now that he was finished, he had to dispose of it.
"Let's go!"
Ming Hu used the scroll to move to the main square of Demesne.
DuribunDuribun
Arriving at the main square, Ming Hu began to look around for vendors.
"Buy a quickie item!"
"Buy an emergency item!"
There were quite a few users buying quick items, but there were no gold bar marks on them. Ming Hu shook his head in disappointment. It wasn't time to sell to non-gold bar users yet.
'Even if I get the right price. I won't care.
Selling items to regular users doesn't pay less than Gold Bars. You will receive the same amount of money as you would from the Gold Bar. However, users who bought the item from you don't care if it's unloaded or not. They'll just try to sell it for a profit.
"If you take your foot off the gas, you're in trouble.
You can try to control them all from the gold bar, but many users will definitely feel weird if you sell them that way. In the worst case, they might walk away.
However, if you sell to a Goldbar vendor, it's a different story. They value profit, but they don't unlock items for profit. Of course, not all of them will, but most of them will slowly unlock the item because it's controlled and manipulated by the guild.
'There will be a limit.
However, if you keep selling this much, you'll eventually run out of gold bars.
"That's for the regular users.
That's when you can sell them to the public. Of course, the worst that can happen is that the market will be overcapacity and the price will plummet, but it doesn't matter to you – you'll have already made a profit, and even if it does plummet, you can always take advantage of it as long as it doesn't drop below 5 gold.
"But how long do you have to buy?
Ming Hu thought about how long Gold Bars would be able to buy items, but he had no idea.
"We'll know when we sell it.
If you sell it, you'll see it. Ming Hu began traveling again, looking for a merchant from the Gold Bar.
"Buy a quickie item!"
"Found it!
After a while, Ming Hu was able to spot one of the Gold Bar's vendors: a female user with a very pretty appearance, a gold bar mark clearly visible above her head, and she was constantly shouting out for urgent items. Ming Hu quickly approached the female user.
"Hi. Are you looking to buy a rush item?"
"Yes, I'm buying!"
Ming Hu smiled and opened his mouth to speak.
"I have a lot of urgent business to attend to… are you okay?"
"Yes! Of course!"
With that, the female user placed a trade. Ming Hu accepted the trade and placed eight solid steel swords in the trading window.
"…"
The female user checked the option for the solid steel sword that was posted. The woman checking the options didn't say anything. Of course, she didn't say anything, but she looked surprised.
"…That's good."
After a while, a female user opened her mouth and said
"It's okay."
Ming Hu smiled and answered the female user's question. The female user cautiously asked.
"How much do you expect to…?"
"How much do you think?"
Ming Hu repeats what the female user asked. The female user didn't say anything for a moment after Ming Hu's question. She seemed to be thinking about how much to charge, and when she finally decided, she opened her mouth to speak.
"How about 640 gold total?"
"640 gold?"
"Yes!"
640 gold, eight sacks, and 80 gold per sack. Ming Hu asked again, wondering if he had misheard.
"You're paying 80 gold per sack?"
"…Yes, 80 gold, for 8 sacks totaling 640 gold!"
After a pause, the female user smiled brightly at Ming Hu's question. Ming Hu looked at the smiling female user and thought to himself.
'He's a funny man.
This user was hilarious. You'd think he'd be apologizing for undercutting me like that, but instead he's smiling broadly.
"Do you think I'm an asshole?
It was like he saw himself as a hobo.
"The same vendor, same guild, bought it for 100 gold…
Golking, a guild member and merchant in Goldbar, also bought a solid steel sword for 100 gold per sack. But 80 gold? That was too much of a price gouge.
"Maybe I should find someone else…
He offered to sell it to a Gold Bar merchant, but he wasn't willing to sell it cheaply, but Ming Hu decided to throw a fastball just in case.
"That's a lot different than I thought it would be, I was expecting at least 100 gold per sack."
She told the golking the same price she had sold it for. The female user looked puzzled by Ming Hu's words. She quickly cleared her face and said nothing as if she was thinking about something.
"I'm not selling one or two, I'm selling dozens of them, and the price difference is so huge, I can't help it. Good luck."
Ming Hu emphasized that the eight sacks on the trading window were not the end of the story. He closed the trading window and turned around to pretend to leave. That's when it happened.
"Wait!"
The female user called out to Ming Hu. Ming Hu turned around and looked at the female user again.
"Isn't the 8 sacks that Parsitem has on the trade window the end of the line?"
"Yes."
Ming Hu nodded in response to the female user's question. The female user then asked again with a curious look on her face.
"So how do we know how many sacks we have?"
"Hold on a second."
Ming Hu thought about it after telling the female user to wait a moment.
'Won't it feel weird to know there are so many? How many should I call?
It might feel weird to say that there are 900 of them.
"I've been lamenting that I don't have one… can't I just call it?
However, the golkings were disappointed when I told them I didn't have any more items. Thinking about it, I felt like I could have just called it the number of items I had.
"No, just in case…
"I have 130 solid steel swords, including the one I just posted."
Just in case, Ming Hu only told him the number of solid steel swords.
"…!"
The female user was surprised to hear Ming Hu's words. Then she thought to herself with a sly smile.
'130 sacks. I'll get at least three.
There's an unusual quest in the Gold Bar from the Guildmaster that rewards you for selling 50 items of a certain condition for a certain price, which is quite a lot of money – 130 sacks, which is more than enough to break three times over, including all the items you've bought so far.
'I can make 20-30 gold per sack for 100 gold…'
Even if you buy it for 100 gold, it's not a small gain. You're left with 20-30 gold per sack.
"Is it true?"
Ming Hu asked.
"…"
The female user smiled wordlessly and made a trade offer to Ming Hu. Ming Hu accepted the trade and posted 8 solid steel swords. Soon after, 800 gold was posted, and so the trade began, and Ming Hu continued to sell solid steel swords.
"That's the last one!"
"I see."
Ming Hu sold all 130 hilts of solid steel swords in 17 transactions. He glanced at the female user for a moment.
"Bye-bye! Next time you have something to sell, I hope you'll look me up!"
The female user's next comment prompted Ming Hu to make a trade with her again.
"…?"
The female user who received the trade request looked at Ming Hu with a slightly puzzled expression. Ming Hu smiled and opened his mouth to speak.
"He told me to come to him if I had anything to sell."
"Didn't you say 130 sacks was the end…?"
"Yes, 130 hilts of solid steel."
"…I see, let me take a look."
The female user looked a little puzzled by Ming Hu's words, but then she smiled and said, "I'll take it. Ming Hu placed eight glowing steel swords on the trading window.
"…"
The female user said nothing as she checked the options for the glowing steel sword. Ming Hu waited for her response.
"How much do you think?"
Ming Hu was quick to speak up when the response he'd been waiting for came.
"115 gold."
"Wait!"
After hearing the price, the female user asked for a moment. She then continued
"Can you tell me how many you have?"
"I have 140 glowing steel swords, including the 8 I just posted."
"Do you happen to have anything other than a glowing steel sword?"
"…"
Ming Hu didn't say anything to the female user's question. He just smiled. As if that was enough, the female user smiled back.
"I'll buy them all!"
As soon as he said that, gold appeared in the trade window. Ming Hu continued to sell items to female users.
* * * * *
The Park of the Nobility, a park in Nexus, the capital of the Imperial Helioca, is exactly what it sounds like: a park for the nobility. Only the nobility were allowed to enter, and now two men were walking along the path, talking.
"Baron Kaiser, our empire is putting all its energy into frontier expansion these days, and as a nobleman of the Empire, you are well aware of that fact."
"I'm well aware."
"And you know there's something wrong with that?"
The Kaiser paused for a moment at the Marquis's words. The Empire was said to have no trouble opening new frontiers, but that was not the case. The Marquis was right, there was one problem, and he wasn't sure if he should say it out loud.
"I see, yes, as you know, the unexplored lands are rampaging with monsters, and the problem is that we have the troops to hunt them down, but not the equipment, and it's not like we can ramp up production when we're already using most of the Empire's blacksmiths to produce it."
"…"
The Kaiser listened to the Marquis in silence. The Marquis continued.
"So I have a favor to ask. Viscount Kaiser."
"…!"
The Kaiser blinked at the Marquis's words. He was a baron. Not a viscount. But the marquis had called him a viscount. Which meant that if he could pull this off, he would be elevated to viscount.
"Please tell me."
The Kaiser opened his mouth, a serious expression on his face. The time we've been waiting for has finally come.
"Get me some equipment. I want you to get the best you can get."
<The Marquis' Favor
The Empire is putting all its energy into frontier expansion. The frontier is supposedly going well, but it's not. The unexplored lands are overrun by powerful monsters. In order for the frontier to open up, these monsters must be driven out, and while you have the troops to do so, you don't have the equipment to do so. Currently, most of the empire's blacksmiths are working tirelessly to produce equipment, but the current output is far from sufficient. Marquis Rikun was worried about this. If he had the equipment, he could quickly open up the frontier, but without it, he's just sucking his fingers. To solve his problem, let's get him the equipment he needs to open up the empire!
Difficulty Level: B
Quest reward: ???, promotion to Viscount
The quest popped up and Kaiser checked it and said with a smile.
"We'll get back to you as soon as we can."