"Okay so here are the basics of commerce on the surf", Ameni explained to an attentive Laverm, “There are two types of businesses, transportation, and commerce"

“Transportation refers to the movement of goods or people from one place to another. It is a venture that requires large amounts of trust and adoration, as people will be stacking their livelihood on a successful journey, however, it is also extremely stable, as in our economy, ship transport is everything”, he continued, “Commerce on the other hand refers to buying goods low in one port and selling them high at another. It requires nothing except a functioning ship, as the risk is solely with the one travelling, however it is extremely unstable, as it relies on market conditions.”

“Got it?”, Ameni asked, giving Laverm a judgmental look

“Ya, ya”, Laverm responded, waving his hand in front of him

“Good”, Ameni said, “I intend on us doing commerce work for the foreseeable future, then applying for membership in the Surf Captain’s guild, at which point we can move onto shipment, establishing a stable socio-economic niche and leaving room for expansion, which is very important”

“Come back after 15 mins of revision and preparation, we will need to go purchase the shipping goods today”, Ameni said, walking from the galley to his quarters

“’M Kay”, Laverm responded, he then began repeating everything that Ameni said under his breath

Ameni walked into his little room and shut the door firmly behind him. It was constructed out of heavy iron, and swung close with a loud WHOOSH, and then a even louder CLANG. Being in Laverm’s company was a tiring ordeal. Though they had been forced together by fate, and got around relatively well, there were certain qualities to him that just made him disconcerting to be around, be it his frequent ranting, the times when he begins to spout random noncence, or when he just gets deadly quiet and simply stares at Ameni. There was this wildness to him that made him hard to predict and harder to understand. Maybe it was the knowledge that he was a canablistic monster that did it, or maybe it was just the fact that they were only friends by necessity, however Ameni got the feeling that he should lock the door and barricade it whenever he slept.

His new room was a homely place, it did not have much lighting save for a single desk lamp that partially illuminated part of the room, lasting long shadows on the rough wooden bed, desk and chair found inside.

However, Ameni could not rest now, for though he had considerable prior knowledge of the economies and goings-on of each island, he would need up-to-date knowledge to be able to accurately time the market. To this end, Ameni had procured a travel brochure of the islands that surrounded Athernon, inferring information on their commercial systems, writing his thoughts down on a small diary he found inside his desk.

Time sped up as he was raptured in his task, until he heard a faint rapping on his door.

“Ummm? Ameni? Buddy?”, Laverm asked, his voice muffled, “I have been waiting for like 30 minutes”

Ameni’s eyes widened as he quickly picked up his diary and ran to the door, “Oh, Sorry, got absorbed in my task”, he said, rapidly leading Laverm out of the ship

They walked through the port, which was just as crowded as before, and took a turn to walk into a capillary street off of it. It was lined on wither side with stores constructed out of concrete. Ameni wanted to buy in established places instead of the significantly cheaper street stalls for two main reasons, one was for the quality control, as those bought from brick and mortar stores would be more consistent, as well as being safer, as they might otherwise get scammed, and neither Ameni nor Laverm was in no way experienced enough to tell fake products apart from genuine ones.

Ameni then walked through to one specific store, one that specialized in the sale of Mageblood. On the inside, it looked nothing like the type of store that Ameni was used to. It was composed much more like a bar than anything else. It was shaped like a rectangle, with the door inside on one part and the cashier on the other, with stout wooden drawers on either side. The overwhelming smell of wood garnish overpowered Ameni’s nose, as he walked up to the bored looking cashier, who was eyeing him with an incredulous look. Ameni returned his look with a smile, before saying in an overly cheerful manner, “Hullo! Could I get an order of medium concentration Mageblood to this here ship?”, handing him a chit of paper with the address of the ship dock

The attendant read it and nodded, then asked, “How many units?”, units were the universal measurement for products in the empire and it’s colonies. It was set as the amount of a product that could fit into an average crate, and was extremely common in commerce

“May I have 5, please?”, Ameni responded, getting a nod in advance. Ameni planned on using all of these as fuel, as due to the fact that they were in a trade-hub city, the price of fuel and supplies would be extremely high. 5 units were enough to go to the location they had planned.

“Sure”, the attendant responded, giving him a receipt, “Pay on delivery, m’ kay?”

They then did the same song and dance multiple times, buying all the necessities of travel, as well as one or two luxury goods that the limited money they had left over got them. A commodity of particular importance that Ameni bought was 5 units of Eebs, common tongue for “Little Men”, which were tiny golems constructed by people known as Alchemists, which were often used for menial labour. They needed magic to work, meaning that Laverm would need to learn how to control multiple of them over time. As day turned into night, both Laverm and Ameni huddled inside the galley, though they was a fire to warm the pair up, due to the fact that the galley was below water-level, heat was constantly being exuded out at a rate faster than it could be produced.Ameni made a mental note to eventually add central heating to the ship, however that was something for the far future.

“So, Am-men-ni”, Laverm said, his teeth chattering, “What are our plans?”

“Well”, Ameni responded “The Idea is for us to go to a port by the name of ‘Cor Lemas’, which is a farming society, a place where Eebs are always in demand. We will sell them for what will likely be a very small profit, at which point we can buy supplies and food for cheap and sell them in remote places, making a lot of profit to fund more expansion”

He then gestured to the area around them, “I say we start with improving the ship itself”, he added, getting “Ah yes that would be pertinent” in a sarcastic voice as a response

The next day, they moved the products to their storage area and began preparations to leave.