Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Chapter 2: Veil, Part 4

All right, time to defuse the situation.

Sorry for mentioning something so weird. I guess I am a country bumpkin after all, hahaha

Even the biggest country bumpkin should know that this is how it works in the countryside. Michio-sama, could it be

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!!!

that you allowed the tales from travelling merchants go to your head too much?

SAFE!!!!!

Y-Yeah, I guess I just took their words for absolute certainty everywhere in the world. How thoughtless of me.

No no, its fine. I was like that myself until I learned the truth the hard way, so allow me to warn you in advance: even in Veil you wont find many such merchants in Veil, since they dwell mostly in bigger cities.

Oh, really? I had no idea it was like that. Guess the stories Ive heard were really blown out of proportion.

Small wonder given that the folks from bigger cities like to exaggerate to us rednecks from the sticks, so dont worry about it too much. Now that you know how it is youll be able to properly distinguish truth from fiction in the future.

And what about those bigger cities? Are they far from small villages such as this one?

Veil is the closest one, but as I already said, its far from being counted among the bigger ones. Nevertheless, people from the neighboring villages tend to go there quite often. As for the bigger ones, they were originally small villages too, but they grew considerably in size the more merchants and peddlers came to live in them. Nowadays, going to one big city from the other would take you around five days by carriage. I do occasionally make trips to the bigger ones, but for the most part I tend to stick to Veil, so that is where Ill be going tomorrow.

Yeah, I know that much, thats why I agreed to go with him to sell the Bandit equipment in the city in the first place. As the merchant continued his lengthy explanatory exposition dump, I decided to reset my character once again.

Since Ill be trying to sell that equipment for as much as possible, maybe investing some Bonus Points in Haggle & Barter skill would be useful? When I added a point to it, I got a message that from now on the prices I will receive for every item I will sell will be 10% better. Hmm, will that amount increase the more points I will put into it? After trying it out, the percentage of the increase in obtained gold rose to 15, 20, 25 and 30% respectively. Just like Bonus Weapons and EXP related skills, it looks like it can be upgraded to Lv.6 at best.

Now the most important question here is: will that skill be usable, or was it a total waste of Bonus Points?

If its all right with you, I want you to take a look at that Rabbits Fur.

I interrupted the merchants diarrhea of the mouth and changed the topic.

Rabbits Fur. Why of course, I can buy it off of you, but a fair warning, dont expect to be paid much for a single piece

He tried to mouth off again, but when I placed all the Rabbit Furs I have obtained today on the counter, he became silent in an instant.

I asked the Chief if there were any monsters around the village and he pointed in a general direction where the Slow Rabbits were dwelling, so I disposed of a few of them. Well, maybe more than a few, now that I think about it, but the point is, Im not selling just a single piece.

No way impossible

The merchant stares at the furs in disbelief and swallows so hard that I was able to hear him clearly from the other side of the counter. Why is he acting so surprised? Ah, could it be?

You know, the Chief warned me that these Slow Rabbits were quite strong so I was skeptical about hunting them in the beginning, but it turned out they were total pushovers.

Except for the Caerbannog one, but I am going to keep that one piece of info to myself until the day death claims me and my body will be put six feet under.

P-Pushovers?! These ferocious predators?! That is thats no, I am sorry. If you are a bona fide Adventurer then of course such beasts would be nothing to you. Forgive my offense, Michio-sama.

None taken.

I understand that for normies with normie stats and normie equipment those monsters could have been undefeatable, but right now I am no longer a normie so there is no reason for me not to boast my strength.

So? Whats it going to be? Are you going to buy those furs off of me or not?

I asked him the most important business question.

O-Of course Ill buy them!

Now thats what I wanted to hear.

Michio-sama, if I may ask, have you joined any Guild or considered joining one in the near future?

I have not joined any Guild and I have not thought about it yet.

That was not a lie on my part. I didnt even know there was a possibility like that.

When you join a Guild, the one I belong to for example, all the merchants belonging to it are contracted to sell you additional goods aside from the ones offered to the general public and they will buy everything you decide to sell them at preferential (read: better than usual) prices, all because the trading profits are the major source of the guilds income. Of course, I will be more than happy to buy it even without you joining our Guild.

So there is such a complicated restriction when it comes to purchasing goods in this world? Then maybe it will be in my best interest to join a Guild after all. But for now

Then please do.

The usual Guild price for one piece of Rabbits Fur is 10 Nar.

I understand.

I dont even know if its a high price for such an item or not.

I see that you have a total of 10 Furs and they are all of excellent quality, I will buy them off you for 130 Nar total.

130? If the usual price was 10 Nar per one piece of fur then the total should be 100 Nar, so that means that my Haggling & Barter skill worked and I have received a 30% better price. It actually worked! This is pretty neat! I can definitely use that! And if the merchant is willing to buy those items from me for such an exuberant price then I guess I have nothing to complain about.

The merchant takes the Furs away from me and places thirty copper 10 yen coin-looking coins and 10 white coins on the counter. If I had to take a wild guess then that one coin which is probably silver must be worth 10 Nar and the copper ones should be worth 1 Nar each. Time to count them just to be sure Im not being scammed here.

26, 28, 30. Everything seems to be correct.

But how am I going to take all of those coins back with me?

Um, do you happen to have a coin purse or something?

Unfortunately I dont, but you can use this bag if you want.

And he handed me a small pouch for my newly acquired coins. And since the top is tied with a string, then it means it must be a drawstring coin purse. I placed all of my coins in there while thanking the merchant for being so considerate of me.

So Picker-san, you said you belong to a Merchants Guild, right. Would you mind telling me more about that?

I secretly performed Identify on the merchant to learn his name. Identify is pretty convenient for things like that.

As a certified merchant I belong to a Merchants guild of course. There are a few exceptions like the Adventurers Guild, but in most cases joining one is required for working in a specified field of business or changing Jobs.

So that would mean Id have to do the same if I wanted to change my Jobs, but Ill ask him for confirmation just to be sure.

So if I wanted to become a merchant myself Id have to join the Merchants Guild?

You want to be a merchant, Michio-sama?

He asked, visibly surprised, so I hurriedly denied it, saying that I was just considering the possibility.

Allow me to say this: whether you are a member of the Adventurers Guild or Merchants Guild, you can only belong to one Guild at a time, and there are strict restrictions for quitting the Guild once you have joined.

Hmm.

Well shit.

But do not worry, Michio-sama. Even without a Guild membership, merchants will still do business with you.

But in order to have access to specialized goods Ill have to join a Guild anyway, right.

Yes, and in addition to that, every Job Change needs to be approved at a Guild Temple.

Great. More needlessly complicated procedures to rain on my parade.

If you already have some experience working as a merchant then all you have to do is register at the Guild and be approved at its temple. But if you dont have any experience in that field whatsoever then Im afraid that getting approval wont be an easy task.

He seems to know what hes talking about very well, so I should make it a point to attentively listen to what hes saying and ask my questions accordingly.

So what about the village farmers.

All members of the Farmers Guild.

Even they have to be registered in the Guild? Thats crazy! Is there even a Job that does not require joining a Guild to obtain it?!

Multiclassing is considered a Bonus Skill by the game, so it would seem that an ordinary person can only have one Job at a time. But then, what about the odd Jobs such as Thief, Villager or a Hero?

You can only join one Guild, so I will have to carefully consider all my options before making a final choice.