Silth leads me to where he’s been living so we can grab his things and move them to the new place. After a few portals to get to a certain park, Silth starts walking, so I follow on foot. He leads me a few streets away and into an alley, behind what looks like an empty building. He moves to the corner of the building and removes one of the stone bricks, creating a space just barely big enough for him to squeeze through.
Sending my spatial senses forward, I start to map out the area he’s climbing into, which is basically a crawl space. I see a pile of blankets that he must be using as his bed as well as several other items placed around the small area, like a stuffed animal and some food and water. He starts gathering up all his belongings into a backpack and crawls out when he’s done. Next, we grab dinner for the four of us and head back to the building we just rented to wait for the others.
Corvax and Daniel show up about half an hour later with a few papers that need to be kept safe, so I put them in my storage core. We all head to the workshop to eat, as it’s the only place with a table and chairs for the moment. We decide who gets what bedroom while we eat. Silth, Daniel, and I all have rooms on the first floor, while Corvax takes the master bedroom and bathroom on the second floor because of his size. The bath in there might be able to fit him—it looks like it was made for a minotaur or something.
“Now we need to furnish the place,” Daniel says after we finish eating.
“We need money first. Let’s go sell all the lizard corpses we’ve been hauling around for the last day and then buy some beds and whatnot.” I respond.
Corvax and Daniel agree, and soon enough we’re back in the market district, looking for somewhere to sell monster parts. I ask a few adventurer-looking people and get pointed to a three-story building a few blocks away called The Torn Hide. There are a few carts parked outside filled with monster corpses and animal hides, and a person with a clipboard is checking out all the contents while writing things down.
The inside of the shop is nice and clean, and it even smells good. I thought it would just be like a butcher shop in here, but the very well-dressed man behind the counter is quickly making me change my mind. Most of the furniture is made from a type of wood that tingles at my [Mana Sense] slightly and has a nice dark brown, almost black color.
“Welcome to The Torn Hide! My name is Relore. I can assist you over here.” Says the man behind the counter, an elf based on his pointy ears. “Are you looking to buy or sell?”
“I’m Ray, we’re here to sell.” I say as I walk up to the counter, getting a well practiced and friendly smile in return from the man.
“Do you have a cart parked out front?” He grabs a clipboard from below the counter and a pen to go with it.
“No, we have everything on us.”
He doesn’t even question it, spatial storage items must be fairly common then. Excluding the members of House Baradia, I’ve only seen a few people in the streets of Barad who have one, and they seemed quite a bit worse than the ones we got from the lab.
“Please, follow me to one of the unloading rooms.” He says as he leads us past the counter and into a hallway, eventually ending up in a square stone room with a drain in the middle of the floor and a few stone tables pushed against the walls. “If you would unload all of the corpses onto the tables, please, I can tally up their value.”
Daniel, Corvax, and I all unload our stored corpses onto the tables. It takes them a good bit longer to do it than me because they have to actually remove each and every body by hand, while I just teleport them out. The worker elf looks surprised when I start teleporting corpses onto the table but quickly schools his face back to a slightly pleasant smile.
After all the corpses are laid out, Relore begins inspecting them, taking notes on his clipboard after each one. He examines their size, teeth, claws, and any wounds they have, and occasionally touches one and activates some kind of skill. It takes him about an hour or so to go through all of the bodies we brought, but he seems fairly happy about the quality of the kills.
“I can offer you four hundred and eighty-five gold, thirty-eight silver, and nine copper for the whole lot. This is a good haul, most people can’t bring out this many corpses.” Relore says in a professional tone.
I look at my teammates, who seem to be content with the price, and nod my head. “Deal.”
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“Wonderful! If you follow me, I’ll get you your money, and you can be on your way.”
Relore leads us back to the front and counts out the money, giving us the exact amount he said. I split the money into four pouches and hand one each to Daniel and Corvax, keep one for myself, and the last one is for Stella. After getting paid, we head back out to at least buy beds for tonight.
We end up finding the closest thing to a furniture store we could, a shop called The Wise Wizard. It’s a wand and staff shop mostly, but the carpenter also makes some furniture on the side. It’s a one story shop and upon entering, a young human girl greets us from the counter.
“Welcome to The Wise Wizard! The best quality staves and wands in Barad!” She says with great enthusiasm.
“We’re here to buy some furniture, actually.” I say, seeing her deflate just a bit before she snaps back.
“Wizel! Got four for furniture here!” She yells into the back room, a workshop presumably.
“Send ‘em back ‘ere!” A male voice yells back, presumably Wizel.
“The master will see you now.” She says as she gestures for us to go to the back.
The back workshop is pretty much exactly how I expected it to be, full of half-finished chairs, tables, staves, wands, bed frames, and pretty much anything else you could imagine that a carpenter might want to work on. Nothing is organized. Projects lie on the floor because almost every surface is already taken up by another unfinished project. On the other side of the room, a very short man is sitting in a chair and working on a wand on the table in front of him.
“Feel free to look 'round. I’ll be with ya in just a second.” He says without turning around to look at us.
I use my spatial perception field and [Mana Sense] to observe what he’s doing to the wand. He doesn’t have any tools but is instead using a skill to very slowly shape and mold the wand in a way similar to what Daniel does with metal, but with wood. After a bit more observation, I think he’s also making the wood grow somehow. Out of curiosity I [Inspect] him.
[Level 52 Wood Shaper]
After a few more minutes, he sets the wand down and hops out of his chair, standing maybe three and a half feet tall. He definitely looks more gnomish than dwarfish, based on how slim he is and the lack of a beard.
“So, what can I do for ya?” He asks.
“We just started renting a new place and need to furnish it.” I pull out some of the papers we got earlier from Morah, ones containing the layout and dimensions of the house.
“Ooh, nice place ya got there. Is there anything specific ya want, or just the standard? I have some fine pieces in storage that might fit nicely in yer dining room, a nice table and matching chairs.”
“For now, these four bedrooms, their bathrooms, and the dining room are all that needs done. Can you do that?” I point out each room on the blueprints.
“Aye, course I can do it. But I want to lay eyes on the place first, see what fits and what doesn’t.” He starts pulling on a jacket from a nearby table.
“You want to go right now?” I ask.
“Aye, should only take a few minutes for me to know what you’ll need.”
“Alright then, please follow me.” I send my spatial senses toward the house and open a portal and quickly walk through, the other four following soon after.
“Yer that space mage initiate, aren't ya? The one who’s been openin’ portals all o’er the city.”
“Guilty as charged.” I say with a shrug. “It beats walkin’.”
The short man chuckles at this, the first hint of emotion he’s shown. “Ain’t that the truth, and the damn Spacers Guild knows it too. Chargin’ an arm and a leg for safe passage. Greedy bastards.”
“You don’t like them?” I probe.
He spits on the ground. “It’s not right, what they do. Pandering to the top families and the upper crust of Helot, leaving everyone else to brave the wilds between cities. I’d tear ‘em down to build something better if I could.”
As a modern man from Earth, I know all too well how corporate greed can affect the lives of those at the bottom of society. So many people could have much better lives if companies just took less of a profit, like how pharmaceutical companies charge insane prices for life-saving medication. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
“The more I hear about the Spacers Guild, the more they sound like pricks.” I say as we enter the house. Daniel, Corvax, and Silth all stay outside, and I notice that Corvax is letting the kid ride on his shoulders.
“Aye, they’re all tiny, shriveled pricks with more money than morals. A cancer to this planet that has made itself useful to only those at the top.”
“Is this a common sentiment people have towards the Spacers Guild? It would explain some of the looks I’ve gotten around town.”
“To those who can’t afford their services, yes. You will find no love for the Spacers from the common folk. Those with the space affinity are filled with greed and selfishness. Present company excluded.”
“I’m selfish and greedy too. The difference is I’m honest about it.” I say as I lead him through the dining room and kitchen.
He lets out another laugh and turns to me from the floor he was inspecting. “Aye, aren’t we all. But I like to think I can know a man well after just a few words with ‘em, and you seem like a decent person.”
He examines the rest of the house over about thirty minutes, occasionally taking measurements with a tape measure and writing notes in a small notebook. He asks me what kind of furniture and style we want, but I just tell him to decide, as he’s the expert. I know nothing about interior design anyway, especially for a medieval-looking mansion.
When we walk out the front door, Corvax is using all four of his arms to launch Silth into the air and catch him again. The kid has a huge grin and can't stop laughing as he goes higher and higher each time.
“So, how does this process work? Do you deliver the furniture and then give us a bill?” I ask.
“For you, my initiate friend, I have a better offer. Give me one hundred gold now, and I’ll have it all moved in tomorrow, the entire house completely furnished.”
I collect a third of the cost from Daniel and Corvax each and pay the final third myself. I hand the pouch over with a small grin. “Want a lift back to your shop?”
A few portals later and we’re back at The Wize Wizard.
“Mighty useful, those portals.” He looks up at me and gives me a small bow. “You can call me Wizel.”
“Ray.” I introduce myself, to which he nods.
“Well then, Ray. I have some urgent work to get back to, so take care. And if you ever want to continue our conversation from earlier, you know where to find me.” He says as he walks back into his shop.
Hmm, I should get some more info on the Spacers Guild. I’ve decided that I’m not going to join them, but I should be very wary of them from what I’ve heard. They seem like the kind of assholes to offer me the ‘join or die’ ultimatum. Especially since I’m like the only freelance space mage in the city. I wonder how many initiates have a space affinity. Maybe I should try to find some of them once we leave Barad.