The World of Tactics

Chapter Twenty-One III: Pre-Homecoming

Chapter Twenty-one III: Pre-Homecoming

"Keep whipping. Oh... Her scream is music to my ears. It's beautiful. Look at your wife and children. Ahaha-ha! Keeping suffering, all for my pleasure. It will not be long before your body is back to its peak state. The more your soul suffers, the stronger your body will become. Ahaha-ha!

Look at your hand that is holding onto the whip. See the blood? Ahaha-ha! Look at your children, look at their beautiful bony frames. Their adorable pitiful eyes, their cries for their mommy, and their bareness. Eating from the worst, sipping from the muddy water, and suffering from the cold stones! Feel the suffering, ahaha-ha! Become stronger, my lovely toy.

It won't be long until you are reunited with your oldest child. I could feel the long twitches of your bloodline within your veins. Once I capture your eldest son, he shall suffer the same. Ahaha-ha! Yes, keep that feeling of falling into the deepest abyss. Ah... Yeah... This is it, you will soon become my finest creation! Ahaha-ha!" On one occasion when Sir Roylis Smith's soul was being tortured mentally, guilt and sadness were the most prominent.

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On the other hand, there was even a class called slavemaster, so the chances for a change would be extremely hard. At that point, he felt conflicted inside because even if he tried to save him. He could only save a couple, but not all of them. He refocused his gaze away from the group of slaves on display and moved on toward the surrounding strong people. Occasionally, he would see one or two and at times see a group of them. Those strong people that caught his eye all have a class grade of two. Those were mercenary, soldier, archer, swordsman, ax fighter, spearman, vagabond, shaman, mage, and hunter.

There were more, but those other grade-two classes that have low combat ability. Those classes were blacksmith, bard, dancer, lumberjack, farmer, tailor, trader, butcher, and merchant. It felt like he was back in the capital again, except for the fact that the setting was completely different and the avenue was also different. Even so, it was quite a festive sight during this time of the day.

Soon enough, Lawrence finally stopped in front of a general shop where daily supplies were sold. Many random things are sold here. The price ranges from one gold coin to over a hundred, depending on the value of the things. The outlook of the general shop was plain like the ones in the capital, along with a carved wooden sign above that said, "Math's General Shop." It was also a typical name for a general shop.

He hopped down from Dork and left Lawrence with Dork outside. Lawrence did not plan on going inside and he did not bother. There were just too many people that were going in and coming out of the shop. It would be easier with just one person going inside to grab some supplies. Well, it was just some flavoring seasonings and salt, a lot of each. He plans on smoking some of the meat strips during the night. Likewise, it would give the meat strips a longer shelf life. He did not want plain meat strips like the ones that he bought from others. He also plans on getting some firewood and a few batches of it as well.

Firstly, he still needs to go back into business mode. He had to sell some of the wolves' furs. That should be able to cover the cost of most of the things that he needed. With that set, he approached one of the counter ladies. There were three clerks and only one available. The lady clerk asked, "Hello, little one. What's the business?"

He said, "I got some fresh wolves' hide." A bit more clarified, he continued, "More than ten."

The clerk lady was surprised, but did not bother going into detail about it and said, "Follow me, we'll talk about the price after appraising it."

It was common for young adults like him to start working as mercenaries and such. So, the lady clerk thinks nothing of his short height but a wide body frame. He had grown very muscular over a few days. His strength stat has increased by three points. Most importantly, his body constitution had increased by two points. It was not obvious to him because he barely felt anything change. He felt completely normal even after his class change and only an increase in his health points. It was why he had never noticed the changes.

The lady took him to the back where a broad and long counter-table was erected on the right side of the wall. While the lady was not looking. He had already taken out all of the wolves' hides and set them on the top of the counter with a flop as it was neatly stacked together. It was only after the direwolves' hides and carcass were stacked did the lady turn back with surprise. The only reason that he dared to do so was that he knew that the peddler class could have twenty additional inventory spaces aside from the original eight item slots. Any class that relates to trading would have additional inventory spaces.

He knew it because he had talked with a peddler before and this was the information that he gained from the peddler. Another thing was that a peddler is not useless in battle at all. With inventory spaces, a peddler could become a mobile supplier. And in huge wars between two kingdoms, there are many common cases of assassinating or harassing each other's supplier traders. Likewise, the reason a trader is useful is that even while in combat or on the battlefield. A trader could access their inventory spaces to grab items into their eight item slots. Other combatant allies could also access a trader's inventory spaces with the trader's approval.

Even in a battle where there is a huge difference in the number of traders between the two sides. The one with a few soldiers could still turn the tide if there is a trader with enough healing herbs or weapon supplies. This is why traders are specially targeted and conscripted in large-scale wars. The side that has more suppliers already has the advantages. Adding on other military advantages, the ones with the most advantages were, most of the time, winners. Hence, being a trader during warring times has many dangers. In simple terms, being a trader is a good thing and a bad thing.

The clerk lady looked at him for a second and said, "Just about to ask, but never mind."

He did not explain anything and went straight to the point, "Here are the hides and a little extra."

The clerk lady left her gaze from him to the things on the counter. The clerk lady almost exclaimed in surprise, "Hoh, direwolves. A pretty nasty encounter."

After a few minutes of scurrying through the hides and carcasses, the lady clerk finally said, "The quality is good. Other than the missing head, that is." Then the clerk lady turns to the three direwolves' carcasses, "As for those three, we'll buy them at a premium price."

He simply asked, "Price?"

The clerk lady made a few headshakes with her lips sounding 'Ums.' He knew that the lady was calculating the sum. The clerk lady finally took out a piece of paper before jotting down some notes or doing some visual math. He did not reach over to take a peek. As long as the price is right, then he is willing to sell all of them for that price. His price expectation for the wolves' hides was between fifteen to eighteen gold coins each, each direwolf's hide for thirty or so, and one direwolf's carcass for forty gold coins.

The clerk lady finally turns her attention to him after a few seconds, "A wolf's hide for twenty coins." Then on to the direwolves, "Direwolves' hide for fifty each and seventy-five gold coins for each direwolf's carcass."

The amount was higher than his initial expectation, so he was a bit happier. He was happier when the lady finally said, "In total, six hundred sixty-five gold coins."

It was quite a sum to gather that many gold coins within one setting. Adding that gold coin to his current amount, his current wealth would be over one thousand gold coins. It did indeed go over one thousand gold coins after the lady clerk handed over the leather pouch filled with six hundred sixty-five gold coins. He currently has one thousand eighteen gold coins. He could use it to buy at least one or two accessories. Too bad, he had spent it afterward on some seasonings and salt.

He had already made his estimation and knew how much seasoning and salt for his two hundred forty raw strips of meat. In total, he had spent one hundred gold coins on the seasonings and another one hundred sixty gold coins on the salt (Salt Cost: 10g per oz.). He had just used up two hundred sixty gold coins. Even so, it was worth it because the two hundred forty meat strips were big.

On the other hand, the meat strips could last for more than half a year if he only ate one meat strip once a day. Or a third of a year if he only ate two meat strips once a day. Three months if he ate three strips a day. It was cost-effective and profitable since he could use those three months to hunt more wolves and increase his riches.

Food for months was secured and happy with the trade, he went out of the general shop. He wanted to buy something useful, so he asked Lawrence, "Lawrence, where is the shop that sells herbs or accessories?"

He plans to stock up on herbs and buy an accessory if there are some gold coins left. He hopped back on top of Dork while Lawrence led the way to a herbal shop. It was not even far. A minute and they reached it. He hopped back down and entered the shop alone. The shop's wooden sign reads, "Healing Herbs Shop" along with some simple plant engravings on the wooden sign's frame. It was very recognizable and relatable even from a distance.

The inside of the shop was fairly simple with many racks and contained many varieties of liquids in small veils. Some straight-up healing pills contain healing properties and are cheap, but can only heal a couple of health points (a healing range of 2 to 3 health points). The cheapest on the racks were the healing pills at the price of ten gold coins a stack. Then move on to the variety of colored liquids within the veils with a price of two hundred gold coins for five (heals 5 health points). A single healing vulnerability goes for four hundred gold coins each (heals 10 or 15 health points).

The most expensive were the potions that could temporarily boost a stat by two points during a battle at the cost of a minimum of five hundred. As for the potions that can boost a stat, the less of a specific potion that is on the rack, the more expensive it was. His eyes were blinded by the fact that the last magic stat boosting potion was priced at one thousand gold coins. That was not just one, ten, or one hundred gold coins. That was one thousand gold coins for a temporary increase of the magic stat by only two points.

A bit embarrassed by the prices, he opted to buy just the dried herbs. In total, he bought ten healing pill packs. An expense of one hundred gold coins. He was fine with this result, but the healing pill packs are not something new. Those healing pills were given once after a hard training session. Most important of all, the dried herbs were pounded into powder before rolling them into a rounded pill-like sphere. In a single pack, there were ten pills wrapped up with rough brown paper. The healing pill description screen reads:

[Healing Pills: Instantly heals 2-3 health points. Taking multiple healing pills does not completely or instantly heal. Regenerate 2-3 health points every turn afterward, for each additional healing pill used on this turn. Regeneration status count starts after the first healing pill. 10/10.]

However, there was one concerning keynote within the healing pill descriptions. A healing pill is only effective once a turn. This meant that he had to be more cautious because a healing pill works differently from the herb batch and he needed to differentiate the two. It would prove fatal later on if he made such a basic mistake. Otherwise, this amount is good enough for use. It was not like he would take forever to get home. It would be only two or so days of travel.

He went out of the shop after pocketing the healing pill packs. Lawrence led the way towards the accessory shop. When they got there, it was very conspicuously huge. The store's sign was completely made up of metals, delicate engravings of various colorful jewelry, and gold coin piling, and the most important thing to take note of was that it used real gold coins to meld them into the sign. This is a sign full of riches. He reckons that it has to take at least two or so thousand gold coins to make such a sign.

The owner truly has the guts to put such a valuable sign above. It was either the owner, a noble with huge authoritative power, or a rich person that did not care about such things being stolen. Either way, he enters the huge accessory store. The accessory store's name was, "Little Treasure House." Well, contrary to the name, it was quite big. He gave a little chuckle at the two contradictions and left Lawrence and Dork outside.

The building was big outside, but he felt that it was much more spacious inside. However, that was just his feeling. The first thing that he saw was a huge staircase that moved up to the second floor. From the way it was designed, those from the second floor would be able to observe those from below. While the opposite was not true and it seems that a person needs some sort of membership card before being allowed by the guard to go up to the second-floor level. The other requirement was to pay some sort of tolls as well.