We arrive at Pops's shop mid-morning. Every day I have been in this world, I have ended up in Pops's shop. Not that I mind, he seems like a decent enough guy, and now we are going to make some money by selling his items, hopefully.
As we walk inside, I can see Pops behind the counter with a pair of glasses on, looking at some parchment. He looks up and sees that it is me and Kaelin.
'Good morning, you two. What brings you here again? Kaelin, I hope you brought this guy with you to spend some more of his money, kekeke!' I guess Pops has realized that I am a good spender, although he didn't rip me off yesterday or the day before, so I have no complaints.
'The Captain wants to buy some stuff from you so we can trade it in the next city we visit!'
'So you are really leaving this city, huh, Kaelin? If this captain of yours does anything to make you cry, come back and tell me, and I will hunt him down for you!'
'Tehehe, no need for that, Pops!'
The two of them show their close friendship easily in their conversation, I guess she must see him as some kind of uncle or father figure considering she has been here since she was a child.
When the conversation allows, I tell Pops what we are here for. 'We've decided that our next destination will be Aurevela. I am looking to buy about fifty to sixty thousand GP worth of product to sell there for profit. What have you got in stock?'
'Aurevela huh? I guess this must be fate in that case. Let's make a deal, lad. If you deliver something there for me, I will sell you anything you like at cost price!'
This is an opportunity too good to pass up. I only need to deliver something for him, and I can make a killing by buying his products at cost price, which will basically only be the price of the materials he used to create the items.
'Because of the pirate activity there, I was thinking of sending a skyfarer to make the delivery, but the guild prices are too high. They wanted to charge me 40,000 GP to deliver a single sword, but if you are going there anyway, we can make a deal.'
So I make the delivery for free, and I can purchase some stuff from him cheaply. He loses nothing, and I make money. It's a win-win as far as I am concerneed.
'Alright, old man, you have a deal. What is this sword you want me to deliver?'
He disappears into the back of the workshop and emerges a minute later carrying a curved blade wrapped in a white cloth.
'Every year, Aurevela holds a combat tournament. The tournament has cash prizes for the winner; this year, the prizes are ten, twenty, and fifty thousand GP for 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place. The 1st place winner will also get this sword.'
He pulls back the cloth, revealing a Katana. It is absolutely beautiful. Just from the detailed work on the scabbard, I can tell that the work is worthy of being called master-crafted.
I take it in my hands, inspecting the exquisite beauty of it.
Sheathed in a lacquered scabbard as black as obsidian, the katana exudes reverence before it is even drawn. I unsheathe it, ready to admire the bladework.
The steel is no ordinary forge-born alloy. It shimmers with layered patterns of shining steel and silver, etched with ancient-looking glyphs and runes that give off an air of historied power.
The hilt is wrapped in midnight-blue monster hide, bound tight with thread of woven copper filaments. The guard is a stylized depiction of a magnificent bird unfurling its wings, chased in gold and blackened steel, a marriage of elegance and menace.
'This is by far my best work. It would go to auction for at least two hundred thousand GP. The organizer of the tournament is an old friend of mine, and every year commissions me to make a blade for the victor. This year, delivering it will be hard because of the pirates, but I can entrust this to you to deliver, right?'
I resheathed the sword, nodding my head in agreement with him. I pass the blade back carefully, holding it with nothing but pure reverence.
'It's an incredible piece. I can see why people would enter a tournament to win it. If you tell me the details, I will deliver it or die trying, I promise.'
'The tournament will take place in 10 days. You need to deliver the sword, the owner's certificate, and the letter to the organizer of the event. His name is Marius, and he runs the combat arena there.'
After collecting all of the relevant information, we get down to business selecting the items that we will buy to trade in Aurevela.
I spend a total of 72,000 GP to get the trade items, which is about 20 thousand more than I had planned; however, buying at cost price was just way too beneficial for us. We can survive on the remaining 30,000 GP we have without much difficulty.
The Items we buy are perfect for trade, as they can be delivered to the ship tomorrow in 6 crates, which should still leave us with a small space in the cargo hold in case we pick up anything on the way.
The items we buy are: 120 steel longswords, 20 Steel shields, 100 Steel Maces, 200 mana rifles, 50 standard revolvers, 3 sets of enchanted mana-steel armour, 5 different enchanted swords of various styles, 20 revolvers similar to Kaelin's enchanted ones, 20 boxes of elemental bullets, 3 enchanted mana rifles and 2 enchanted hand cannons.
Pops assures me that the retail market price for all of these items should be somewhere around 650,000 GP in Aurevela, as the blacksmith there sells inferior products. We stand to profit close to 580,000 GP thanks to accepting the mission to deliver the Katana.
Pops provides an itemized list with a guide to the retail value of each item, so that when we negotiate with the traders at Aurevela's port, nobody manages to take advantage of us.
The katana and accompanying documents go into my storage ring, and Pops arranges for all of our purchases to be delivered the next day.