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《Shaper: New Beginnings》Arc1 Ch 7 – Day 2 Starter Village P2

As I make my way back to the village a feeling of relief comes over me as it comes into view. I exchange greetings with the two guards, and head to the Tavern to sell the rabbit meat and see what the wolf’s body would sell for. As I enter the tavern John greets me, from behind the bar, otherwise the tavern is empty.

“Hi, looks like you have been busy leveling since I last saw you.” He says with a smile.

“I have been and have a few things to sell.”

“Great, come over to the bar and let’s look at what you have.”

As I reach the bar I start to pull the meat from my inventory when John laughs and then apologizes. “Sorry about that. I forgot you haven’t done any trading yet. Put the meat back in your inventory and think trade while looking at me.”

A new window opens with two sets of side by side grids, with each grid 4 by 4 squares. It looks a lot like my inventory screen, with my name over the right-hand grid and John’s over the left.

“Now think about putting the meat you want to trade into your side of the trade panel.”

As I do 4 stacks of 10 rabbit meat appear in the window along with 4 in a separate stack from the rabbits I killed.

“Great and you have been busy. Our price we agree on is 1cp per 2 pieces of meat, so that comes to 22cp. Let me put that in my side of the trade window.”

I see the pile of copper pieces appear in John’s side. I get a panel asking if I accept the trade and as I do both panels vanish. My inventory now has 22cp and no rabbit meat.

“John what is the ratio of copper pieces to other coins?”

“Well, it is 100cp to the silver, 100sp to the gold, and 100gp to the platinum.”

“I have one more thing to trade, but not sure if you are interested. I killed an Alpha Wolf.”

John’s eyebrows shot up. “How did you do that? You are only level 6 and they are typically level 7 with a lot more health than you. Also, they are usually in a pack with up to eight other wolves.”

“I got a little lucky. It was just the one lone alpha wolf.” I say as I grin weakly.

“That makes a little more sense, sometimes an Alpha wolf in challenged for leadership of the pack and the loser is either killed or in this case forced out of the pack. So, you butchered it and want to sell the meat?”

“No, I had room in my inventory, so I have the whole wolf.”

With a laugh he says, “Well then follow me.”

John leads me back to the kitchen with a dizzying array of pots and pans, chopping blocks, cast iron stoves, and a huge butchering table, which is where he gestures for me to put the wolf.

I place the wolf on the table. John looks it over and says, “Well this looks pretty good, so I will make a deal with you.”

I look at him suspiciously, but say, “Go on.”

“Oh, you look so suspicious of me, I should be offended.” He says with a grin. “I have a very good Skinning skill compared to you, so I will get a very good quality skin and more meat than you would. I am suggesting you let me butcher the wolf. You will get the skin and I will get the meat.”

That is a good deal, because with my low-level skinning I am still having trouble with lower level rabbits versus a higher-level wolf.

“That sounds reasonable. I want to keep the tail for a quest and can you show me how I can do a better job skinning as well?”

“That is no problem.” John removes a large skinning knife and sharpens it on a strap of leather hanging on the edge of the table. John switches to lecture mode as he begins to skin the wolf and then butcher the animal. I learn a lot and the System seems to agree as my Skinning skill goes up a level. I also see I now have a Trading skill I just learned from negotiating for the training and wolf skin. John hands me a Superb Quality Wolf Skin as he finishes.

“You should be able to take that Skin to the General Store and get a good price.” John says.

“How much would they offer for this?”

“You should use it as an opportunity to build up your own trading skills, but I will say it should get around a silver, see if you can’t do better than that. Now off with you while I take care of all these delicious alpha wolf steaks.”

I head over to the General Store. Burt is back up on his ladder going through overstock. He slides down as I tell him I have some skins to sell.

“Great, rabbit skins, right?” he says.

“To start with.” I say with a grin. “Do you want me to open a trade window and add them?”

“That would be great.”

I open a trade window with Burt and add the skins. I added 44 skins, 17 poor, 20 average, and 7 good.

“Ok, I can give you 4cp for the bundle of poor quality skins, 7cp for the bundle of average skins, and 3cp for the bundle of good skins, which is 14cp total.”

“You make it 15cp and we have a deal.”

“Hah, I was being generous, but ok, 15cp it is.”

He adds 15cp to his side of the trade window and I accept.

“Now I have a few things you can probably afford now.” He says as he starts to head over to one of the tables.

“Wait I have one more thing to sell.”

“Oh, really, what’s that?”

“I have a Wolf Skin.”

“Great let’s see it.” He says as he opens a trade window.

I put the Alpha Wolf skin in the trade window and his expression is priceless.

As he tries to wipe the surprised expression off his face, he says. “How in the world did you kill an Alpha and get a superb skin off it?”

“I got lucky, so how much for the skin?”

He looks at me with disbelief and then looks more serious as he says, “I can give you 75cp for it.”

I say, “That’s funny because when I was showing it at the Tavern I could swear John thought it would go for over a silver.”

Burt frowns as he says, “John should not be commenting on merchandise he is not dealing in.”

I just look at him.

“Alright, 1sp is my final offer.”

I grin as I accept the payment. “Now I think we can look at some merchandise. First do you have any chalk?”

“Yes, 5 pieces of white chalk is 2cp.”

“Ok, I will take that. I would like to see some spells if you have any.”

“Sure, right over here we have the level one and two spells. Level one is 10cp each and level two are 30cp each. I can also teach you how to channel mana for 20cp. You won’t be getting a different price for these.”

I look at the scrolls and see the four level one spells there is Mend, Mana Dart, Ignite, and Light. The level two spells are Ice Dart, Fire Dart, Shield, and Minor Heal.

“What is the difference between level one and two, any prerequisites?”

“Only difference is the amount of power. If you have enough mana to cast level two spells you will also need to be at least Novice in Mana Manipulation.”

“I would like Mana Dart, Ice Dart, Fire Dart, Shield, and Minor Heal.” I open a trade window and put 130cp in it.

“Anything else?”

“I think that will do it thanks.”

I accept the trade as he adds the spells and chalk.

“Thanks.” I say as I head out of the store and back over to the tavern for dinner.

John serves me another delicious bowl of stew and bread as we make small talk. I can tell he is curious about what I got at the store, but he doesn’t pry. I wonder if he will say anything after talking to Burt. After dinner I head up to my room, lock the door, and take the scrolls out of my inventory. As I review each scroll it turns to dust and I get a notification with the spell details.

Mana Dart, Level 1