The greasy woman was eavesdropping on Sam’s conversation until he activated the privacy distortion. She couldn’t believe that this “Melvin” from Bot Battle City was muddying the prestige of the Merchant’s Guild by accepting a soundwave from this poorly dressed low-class man. When the conversation lasted less than a minute, and the privacy distortion was dropped, she noticed a concerned look on the man’s face, she guessed Melvin properly chastised the man for wasting his time. The more she thought of the arrogant upstart even approaching their Guild’s booth, the more it angered her, and she decided to teach the man a lesson before he left.

“Mr. Sam!” the greasy woman called out.

Sam looked over at the bitchy woman, who was now trying to give him a friendly smile, and replied, “Yes, have you heard from Melvin?”

The woman couldn’t hide the roll of her eyes, and dropped all pretense of being friendly before saying, “Look… Melvin is not going to help you. Our guild doesn’t help your type.” The greasy woman then received a gambling quest.

==

Gambling Quest:

Get Mr. Sam to leave the Trading Hall in 5 minutes any way you can.

If you’re successful, you will receive 50 gold, 6 euphoria, 6 euphoria remedies, and 2 ability points in your merchant skill.

If you fail, you will lose 2 random ability points.

Select “Yes” to accept the quest.

Select “No” to decline the quest and continue being a pathetic Merchants Guild's Booth Representative.

==

After accepting the gambling quest, she said in an overly arrogant voice loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to hear, “Master Sam why are you continuing to waste everyone’s time looking at goods that you can’t afford.”

Sam was pissed, he was going to get revenge, but right now, he wanted to shut the woman up and dispel everyone’s attention, so he pulled his hood up over his head to hide his face, and said, “Lady, what’s your problem? Melvin can vouch for me, so cut it out.”

Several wealthy merchants and nobles started to watch the spectacle and make side bets on how long it would take before Sam was thrown out of the Hall, or if Sam would punch the woman and get arrested by the guards.

The Merchants Guild and all the traders' booths only displayed their most expensive items to try and increase their status among those in the Hall. The greasy sneering woman didn’t have much time left to win her gambling quest, so she said, “I’ll do everyone here a favor. Master Sam, if you can buy any single item displayed in my booth, I’ll give you a second item of equal or lesser value for free, but if you can’t buy a single item, leave our hall within a minute!” The woman felt confident Sam would need to leave, because the cheapest item she had on display was 200 gold.

Sam turned so that only the woman could see his face, he then pretended to look crestfallen for a split-second, then smiled as he loudly announced from the shadow of his hood, “Deal! I accept!” and he walked over to the booth items clearly indicating he was going to purchase something.

The crowd went wild paying and collecting bets they had made, as well as starting new bets on the amount of the item he was going to purchase. The greasy woman face had turned ashen, and she begged, “Please forgive my rudeness! I can’t afford to cover the offer!”

A man dressed in the fashion of the nobles in the City warned, “You made the offer on behalf of the Merchants Guild. The items are in the booth for selection. If you do not sell him the goods as promised, Lady Domino will be notified of both your thievery and the Merchants’ Guilds thievery!”

The woman started sobbing, saying “I will be indentured to the Merchants’ Guild for life! Please forgive me, and agree to cancel the deal!”

Sam ignored the woman as he quickly browsed through the items. There weren’t a lot of choices, but they all looked powerful. Sam didn’t have an inspect skill that would tell him what level the items were or anything else, so he had to rely on the description tag next to each one. There was a 6-shot repeater steam-bow, a recurve bow that magically loaded the arrow from the quiver each time the draw string was pulled, a sword with two extra “phantom” strikes of the blade every time the blade was swung, several light-weight shields, potions that would increase your mana pool, strength stat, agility, and other effects, but Sam couldn’t find any type of mana shield. There were also several impressive gnome gadgets, one which appeared to be some type of steam-powered rocket boots, but he wasn’t really interested gnome gadgets unless they could create a personal protection shield like a mana shield. Sam then quickly glanced at the descriptions of the technique and skill scrolls. “Damnit! No mana shield,” Sam exclaimed to himself. Sam felt pressed for time, he wanted to find something to buy and get out of the Hall ASAP, before someone decided to take too much interest in him. As he thought about quickly going back through the scrolls to look more closely at the other options, his AI just popped a screen in his vision, displaying two scrolls. One scroll was entitled, “Multi-race perception scroll,” and his gut screamed at him to get it. Sam almost choked when he saw the listed price of 680 gold, but grabbed it and the other scroll his AI highlighted, a “Mana Manipulation” scroll, even though it was priced even higher at 700 gold! Sam pulled 700 gold out of his ring and placed it down on the counter in front of the sobbing lady for everyone to see, then he ran out of the Trader’s Hall.

As Sam left the Hall, he activated his forgetmenot charm and quickly moved several blocks away before sneaking into a clothing store, where he purchased a change of clothing for a few silvers. As Sam left the clothing store, he was trying to think of a way to explain to Jen how even though he only had about 30 gold left, they could sell the mana manipulation scroll… when his thoughts were interrupted by a soundwave call from Melvin.