Chapter 18 – The Slums, and Raskal’s Chamber of Commerce

He could always revisit the noble woman’s fetch quest later. For now, he was more interested in whatever the hell merchant ranks were, and this new merchant quest.

Making a left turn at the nearest side street, Daniel dipped into the shady alleyway, passing a beggar bundled creepily in gray rags, reaching out towards him with his gnarled hands. It seemed that even in this rather egalitarian outpost city, there was still a wealth disparity between rich merchants and poverty stricken beggars, with the latter occupying the dirty rat infested slums in the alleyways connecting the bustling main market streets.

Stepping over a rat with a piece of rotten kebab in its mouth, Daniel pulled at his hood and whispered to Aerie. “Stay inside, alright? I don’t like the look of this area.”

He felt a soft nod and a reassuring pat from the small faerie inside his hood. They were in human territory now, and although Daniel was safe here in this starting city, he couldn’t say the same for Aerie. Wanting to keep the faerie that saved his life in the tutorial and gave him her tribe’s treasure, and not to mention was the lone survivor of her tribe, safe and sound, Daniel decided to play conservatively with regards to her, keeping her hidden. Aerie was smart, and she fully understood the situation and agreed with his approach.

Making his way further down the slum alleyway, Daniel avoided eye contact with another beggar, whose milky eyes were hazed over under the influence of a poppyseed narcotic.

Clank.

With a clatter, the beggar dropped a bowl of some kind of smokey liquid that spilled down the street, which had a pungent and sickly sweet odor that assaulted Daniel’s nostrils as he passed by. The earthen bowl fractured into pieces, and the beggar drunkenly reached for it, his hand missing the bowl due to his impaired motor skills.

Telling himself to stay calm, Daniel stepped over the bowl and continued along the narrow alleyway, walking for several minutes before finally emerging into a busy street near the trading post. Merchants peddling their goods shouted prices in the air, with several of them showing off entire bars of iron ingot, lizard scale hides, and other interesting items. The category of wares being sold here seemed more along the lines of raw materials, and materials sold in bulk, compared to the other market street which had consumables and equipment that adventurers could immediately use.

In short, this trading post was where merchants dealt with other merchants, buying and selling raw materials, ores, ingots, monster products, potion herbs, and even papers and writs. At a monster material stand, a gnome scribbled furiously onto a piece of parchment, recording each transaction and issuing commercial paper writs and promises to pay to potential buyers.

“Excuse me, sir,” Daniel asked, approaching the gnome who did not look up to acknowledge him. “Where is the chamber of commerce?”

The gnome answered without glancing upwards at him. “Go straight from my left, then make a right turn at the chocobo stand.”

“Thank you,” Daniel replied uncomfortably. He began walking in the direction that the gnome pointed him towards, scanning the left side of the trading post for a chocobo stand.

Several minutes later, he finally saw it. With squawking oversized chicken-like creatures that varied from toddler sized infant chocobo to five foot tall fully grown chocobos, the vibrantly colored birds rustled and pecked at their cages, while a loud auctioneer dictated prices.

“Do I hear six hundred?” Six hundred? Going once… going twice... Seven hundred, says the gentleman in the back. Do I hear seven hundred?”

Feeling Aerie shift uncomfortably in his hood, Daniel aired out his hood for a second to let her breathe some fresh air before covering it back up, then made the right turn past the chocobo stand that the gnome directed him towards. Just up ahead was a large circus shaped tent, with the words Raskal Chamber of Commerce hung up on a fancy ornate sign.

Daniel peeled aside the tent’s entrance and entered the chamber of commerce.

“Welcome to Raskal’s chamber of commerce. What is your order of business today?” a tired voice asked him from behind a counter. The bored female receptionist wore a pair of thick frame glasses and had her hair tied up in a tight bun, giving her a secretarial look.

“I’m here to register as a merchant,” Daniel said.

“Wait one second sir,” the receptionist said in a monotone voice. She opened the cabinet and pulled out a piece of parchment, then handed it to him with a quill pen and an inkwell. “Please fill out this paperwork.”

Daniel spread the parchment on the desk and was just about to dip his pen into the inkwell, when the receptionist made an irritated clicking noise with her tongue. “Please sit over there, sir.” She pointed at a table nearby.

Grunting, Daniel took the parchment and headed to the desk nearby.