CH.225 Let’s buy some metal
“How about a snack?” I offered Lua, as we were walking through the town and I noticed a few street stalls selling food. I definitely didn’t offer it because I miss the burritos I got from Sam’s stall back in Alewatch. They really were great, so I want to see if we can find something that is on a similar level.
“Sure.” Lua immediately answered. “... I think this is the first time I’m going to buy food from a food stall…” She muttered after that.
“Really? … Well, I guess that’s something. But you really didn’t try the street food in Alewatch.”
“I was still getting used to food back then.” Lua said.
“Oh, okay. I actually thought you were trying to keep the curing a secret or something, considering how quickly Ria began eating solid foods.” I’m not sure if solid foods is the right term, but they did basically go from a 100% blood diet, to eating anything and everything, so I think it should be.
“... I think that is just how Ria is. She jumps into things faster than I do.”
“Ah. I see. Well, want to pick something? We can pick up anything we want, and if we don’t finish it, I can put it into storage and it won’t spoil.” I reminded her of the cool features of my unique skill.
“... then can we just buy a bit of everything?” Lua asked, seeming almost ashamed that she would ask for something like that. “I … I want to give some to the others living in the village.”
“Yeah. Of course we can.” I’m not going to comment on my thoughts about that, but I do feel like that was, at least partially, an excuse. But at the same time, I don’t care if it was.
Our first stop was a stall selling simple meat skewers, with just some salt as seasoning. You could get two of them for a copper coin, so they were a bit more expensive than the ones in Alewatch. There, you could get three or four for a copper, but there could be a difference in the amount of meat per skewer. The meat was … alright, but I wouldn’t call it great. But I might also be spoiled by the meats I usually eat. Even outside of the dragon meat, the Earl’s manor always has high quality meat, so I’m a bit spoiled. I decided to not buy any to keep, so we kept going.
Next one was a burrito place, so I had high hopes, but honestly, it was a disappointment. One burrito was 3 copper coins, three times the price I paid for the same in Alewatch. Sure it was a bit larger, but they didn’t taste nearly as good. The meat was fine, but the vegetables were just bad.
After another three … mediocre stops, we finally found something I actually enjoyed. Sausages with mustard. Yeah, that’s all there was to it, but considering that this was the first time I’ve had mustard, or at least something akin to mustard in this world, I quite liked it.
“May I ask something?” I asked the stall keeper.
“Of course sir. What is it?”
“This … sauce, is it your recipe or do you buy it from somewhere?” I asked, trying to be a bit careful not to say anything dumb. And as I hadn’t seen mustard in Alewatch, it could be something he came up with.
“Ah, the seed sauce. No, I got the recipe from a merchant selling the seeds. He is from the south, and so are the seeds. I think the sauce is more common there.” He answered.
“Okay. Do you have any extra of this sauce, which you would be willing to sell?” I asked.
“I can sell some of it, but are you sure? It will quickly go bad, so you’ll need to use it in a day or two. I could sell you the recipe and some of the seeds instead.” He offered.
… okay, didn’t expect that. Free mustard recipe?
“Yes please. … but are you sure?”
“Yes. You two are adventurers, right? I highly doubt you two would get into competition with me, so I don’t mind.” He said, before bringing his face closer to mine. “And to be honest, I promised the merchant who gave me the recipe that I would share it if someone earnestly asked for it.”
“.... alright. I can keep that promise, if you want.” I said back. “So, how much for some of the seeds?”
With two large silvers worth of mustard seeds and a recipe, as well as a handful of sausages, in my storage, we moved to the next stall.
After a few more stops, we finally reached the metal shop. In case you were wondering, Lua’s favorite food was these thin pancakes. The stall owner would make two for one order, stack them, apply a generous amount of berry jam, and roll them like into a burrito-like shape, so you could hold them in your hand. And they were just two coppers a piece, so I ended up buying twenty five of them. The stall owner was a bit surprised by the large order, but as soon as I got two large silver coins out, she got to work making them. They were going to be the dessert for tomorrow, so I made sure I had one for every dhampir in the village, as well as us.
The guard at the entrance to the store stopped us, but I showed him the letter I got from the Earl and he let us in.
Quickly after we came in, a male worker dressed in a nice … suit came and spoke to us. I’m a bit hesitant to call it a suit, as it isn’t a three-piece suit, as the ones you are likely thinking of, but one of the local suits. Like the one I’m having made for me.
“Sir, Dame.” He greeted us. “What may I do for you today?”
“Good day.” I greeted him properly. “We have two things. First, I’m here to pick up an order on behalf of Earl Sawyer. This letter will explain everything.” I said as I handed him the letter. This was actually my payment for the letter of introduction. I had to act as a courier. Or would it be a deliverer? Vendor? … no clue. Well, I was supposed to pick up a small order of iron and get it to Sawyer city. “I’d also like to buy some for myself. Steel, iron, bronze and copper, if possible.” I requested.
“Yes, of course. What amounts are you looking for specifically? And how will you be transporting it?” He asked.
“About 100 kilos of each, if possible. And we will transport it in my item box.” I answered. I didn’t want too much at once, as to not buy out the supply. “And maybe put in an order for later as well?”
“... I see. That is quite the amount. Are you sure your item box can fit all of it?” He asked.
“Yeah, it should. And I do have a decently sized magic bag, in case it doesn’t.” I answered, referring to my backpack. It was currently empty, and I actually had just kept it in my storage, as I didn’t need it for anything, but I had pulled it out before we got into town, just to look more authentic.
“Good, good. Now we do have a small problem with that order.” The worker said. “While the copper, bronze and iron are not a problem, we do not have that amount of steel on hand, unless you are willing to take the low quality stuff. For a lower price, of course.”
“... that depends on the price. I think I can come up with uses for the low quality steel.” I intentionally gave him an out.
“You could also put in an order, and we will have that ready. But as high quality steel is our most wanted product, it does have quite the waiting list.”
Good to know. But as far as I know, I should be able to turn iron into steel, and the same should go for turning low quality steel into higher quality steel. I think the process involves getting the iron, and steel, into a molten state, and letting it flow down a coal tunnel or something like that. Then you separate the ‘bloom steel’ into high carbon and low carbon steel, and you are done. Some of my monsters will likely know better, but I think that is at least somewhat close.
Of course if their ‘low quality steel’ is cast iron, instead of wrought iron like I’m assuming, we might have some problems. I don’t think cast iron can be turned into high carbon steel, as cast iron has a higher carbon content than high carbon steel. At least the high carbon steel I want. The one that is good for making weapons and armor.
I ended up picking up the entire 100 kilos for the copper, bronze and iron. The ‘low quality steel’ they had turned out to be some sort of super high carbon content stuff called pig iron, and I honestly wasn’t going to pick it up, until Laura contacted me. She had been talking with Kotetsu in the factory and Kotetsu said we could use those things for a few things, so I ended up picking up about 70 kg of pig iron and 30 kg of steel.
For the prices, the copper was just three copper coins per kilo. So in total, the entire 100 kilos came to just three gold coins.
The bronze was a bit more, at 5 copper, or one small silver, per kilo.
The iron was 7 copper per kilo, whereas the pig iron was 4 copper per kilo and the steel was 25 copper per kilo. I have to say, not all that expensive. Sure the steel was a bit expensive, but I was expecting a lot worse.
My total came to 25 gold, 1 large silver and one small silver. Again, honestly speaking, I was expecting a price double that at least, so I’m more than fine with this.
I also picked up the Earl’s order, which was for 100 kilos of wrought iron, or something like that. I don’t know what he plans to do with it, but I don’t really care.
I guess one thing worth mentioning are the ingots the metals came in. There were three sizes, at least what I saw. 2 kilogram ingots, 5 kilogram ingots and 10 kilogram ingots. All of my stuff was the 5 kilo ingots, except the pig iron, which was in the form of a lot smaller ingots, only about 500 grams per ingot, as it still lacked processing.
I did get some looks from the worker as I just casually stored all of the metal into my storage, but as he didn’t ask, I don’t need to answer with a lie. Then I made sure Tahlia would use that material quality increase on all of the metals, so they would be as high of a quality as I could have them. And as a free service, I also did it for the Earl’s wrought iron, because why not? If he asks, I’ll blame this place.
Then I put in an order for 500 kilos of high quality steel, 200 kilos of copper, 200 kilos of bronze and 200 kilos of iron. I got some looks for it as well, but as soon as I brought out half of the total price, which is the norm here when you order something, the worker got to work writing up a contract for it. And as he noticed I had money, he offered some of their premium stuff as well. Well, they only had one, but it was mithril, so I made sure to get 50 kilos of mithril added to my order as well. I actually wanted 100, but they said that would be impossible. FYI, mithril cost me 3 gold per kilo, making it 12 times more expensive than steel. But honestly, it might be worth the price.
The total preorder price was 15250 copper coins, or 152 gold and two large silvers. Also known as not even one day's worth of Upstart Goblin money.
“... I think you overdid it a little.” Lua commented.
“Really? I think I kept it on a reasonable level. I honestly would have loved to take double that amount.”
“... yes. You overdid it.” Lua repeated. “Let’s go look at some clothes next.”
Our next stop was a clothing store. Because Lua asked for it. But this town had mostly work clothing for mine and forgery workers, and the regular stuff was quite overpriced, yet ugly, so we quickly called it quits. We could just go shopping in Sawyer city instead.
Instead, we left the town and headed out. Luckily the guard at the town’s gate had changed, so no extra questions for us about our one day stay.
When we were far enough away from the town, I summoned Gradius and we flew back to the west gate of Sawyer city.
“Welcome back, Sir.” The guard welcomed me. By now, most of them … well they didn’t know me, but they knew of me. You know, Overdrive and the mithril medal with the Sawyer family crest does that.
“Thanks. May we come in?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. As soon as I see the papers of you and your companion.” He reminded me that even if he knew me, I still had to show my guild card to him. Sure I could show the medal and ‘force’ my way in, but I have no real need to.
I got out my guild card, while Lua got out both her card and her papers stating that she is stable. Dhampirs have to show both when they get into a guarded city or town.
We walked through town, stopping at a few places. Including a clothing store or two and Agatha’s place. She had some choice words, mainly for me, but it's nothing I didn’t hear from Laura’s father when I first met him. It involved certain … bedroom acts. Actually, compared to Laura’s father, Agatha let me off easily. Probably because I did regrow her arm and because dhampirs can’t get pregnant unless they choose to. I reminded her that we would be coming tomorrow morning to ‘escort’ her, and then left so we could get to the Sawyer manor before dinner time.
One last set of introductions left. Let's just hope they won't have too bad of a reaction to Lua's wings.
CH.225 Let’s buy some metal
“How about a snack?” I offered Lua, as we were walking through the town and I noticed a few street stalls selling food. I definitely didn’t offer it because I miss the burritos I got from Sam’s stall back in Alewatch. They really were great, so I want to see if we can find something that is on a similar level.
“Sure.” Lua immediately answered. “... I think this is the first time I’m going to buy food from a food stall…” She muttered after that.
“Really? … Well, I guess that’s something. But you really didn’t try the street food in Alewatch.”
“I was still getting used to food back then.” Lua said.
“Oh, okay. I actually thought you were trying to keep the curing a secret or something, considering how quickly Ria began eating solid foods.” I’m not sure if solid foods is the right term, but they did basically go from a 100% blood diet, to eating anything and everything, so I think it should be.
“... I think that is just how Ria is. She jumps into things faster than I do.”
“Ah. I see. Well, want to pick something? We can pick up anything we want, and if we don’t finish it, I can put it into storage and it won’t spoil.” I reminded her of the cool features of my unique skill.
“... then can we just buy a bit of everything?” Lua asked, seeming almost ashamed that she would ask for something like that. “I … I want to give some to the others living in the village.”
“Yeah. Of course we can.” I’m not going to comment on my thoughts about that, but I do feel like that was, at least partially, an excuse. But at the same time, I don’t care if it was.
Our first stop was a stall selling simple meat skewers, with just some salt as seasoning. You could get two of them for a copper coin, so they were a bit more expensive than the ones in Alewatch. There, you could get three or four for a copper, but there could be a difference in the amount of meat per skewer. The meat was … alright, but I wouldn’t call it great. But I might also be spoiled by the meats I usually eat. Even outside of the dragon meat, the Earl’s manor always has high quality meat, so I’m a bit spoiled. I decided to not buy any to keep, so we kept going.
Next one was a burrito place, so I had high hopes, but honestly, it was a disappointment. One burrito was 3 copper coins, three times the price I paid for the same in Alewatch. Sure it was a bit larger, but they didn’t taste nearly as good. The meat was fine, but the vegetables were just bad.
After another three … mediocre stops, we finally found something I actually enjoyed. Sausages with mustard. Yeah, that’s all there was to it, but considering that this was the first time I’ve had mustard, or at least something akin to mustard in this world, I quite liked it.
“May I ask something?” I asked the stall keeper.
“Of course sir. What is it?”
“This … sauce, is it your recipe or do you buy it from somewhere?” I asked, trying to be a bit careful not to say anything dumb. And as I hadn’t seen mustard in Alewatch, it could be something he came up with.
“Ah, the seed sauce. No, I got the recipe from a merchant selling the seeds. He is from the south, and so are the seeds. I think the sauce is more common there.” He answered.
“Okay. Do you have any extra of this sauce, which you would be willing to sell?” I asked.
“I can sell some of it, but are you sure? It will quickly go bad, so you’ll need to use it in a day or two. I could sell you the recipe and some of the seeds instead.” He offered.
… okay, didn’t expect that. Free mustard recipe?
“Yes please. … but are you sure?”
“Yes. You two are adventurers, right? I highly doubt you two would get into competition with me, so I don’t mind.” He said, before bringing his face closer to mine. “And to be honest, I promised the merchant who gave me the recipe that I would share it if someone earnestly asked for it.”
“.... alright. I can keep that promise, if you want.” I said back. “So, how much for some of the seeds?”
With two large silvers worth of mustard seeds and a recipe, as well as a handful of sausages, in my storage, we moved to the next stall.
After a few more stops, we finally reached the metal shop. In case you were wondering, Lua’s favorite food was these thin pancakes. The stall owner would make two for one order, stack them, apply a generous amount of berry jam, and roll them like into a burrito-like shape, so you could hold them in your hand. And they were just two coppers a piece, so I ended up buying twenty five of them. The stall owner was a bit surprised by the large order, but as soon as I got two large silver coins out, she got to work making them. They were going to be the dessert for tomorrow, so I made sure I had one for every dhampir in the village, as well as us.
The guard at the entrance to the store stopped us, but I showed him the letter I got from the Earl and he let us in.
Quickly after we came in, a male worker dressed in a nice … suit came and spoke to us. I’m a bit hesitant to call it a suit, as it isn’t a three-piece suit, as the ones you are likely thinking of, but one of the local suits. Like the one I’m having made for me.
“Sir, Dame.” He greeted us. “What may I do for you today?”
“Good day.” I greeted him properly. “We have two things. First, I’m here to pick up an order on behalf of Earl Sawyer. This letter will explain everything.” I said as I handed him the letter. This was actually my payment for the letter of introduction. I had to act as a courier. Or would it be a deliverer? Vendor? … no clue. Well, I was supposed to pick up a small order of iron and get it to Sawyer city. “I’d also like to buy some for myself. Steel, iron, bronze and copper, if possible.” I requested.
“Yes, of course. What amounts are you looking for specifically? And how will you be transporting it?” He asked.
“About 100 kilos of each, if possible. And we will transport it in my item box.” I answered. I didn’t want too much at once, as to not buy out the supply. “And maybe put in an order for later as well?”
“... I see. That is quite the amount. Are you sure your item box can fit all of it?” He asked.
“Yeah, it should. And I do have a decently sized magic bag, in case it doesn’t.” I answered, referring to my backpack. It was currently empty, and I actually had just kept it in my storage, as I didn’t need it for anything, but I had pulled it out before we got into town, just to look more authentic.
“Good, good. Now we do have a small problem with that order.” The worker said. “While the copper, bronze and iron are not a problem, we do not have that amount of steel on hand, unless you are willing to take the low quality stuff. For a lower price, of course.”
“... that depends on the price. I think I can come up with uses for the low quality steel.” I intentionally gave him an out.
“You could also put in an order, and we will have that ready. But as high quality steel is our most wanted product, it does have quite the waiting list.”
Good to know. But as far as I know, I should be able to turn iron into steel, and the same should go for turning low quality steel into higher quality steel. I think the process involves getting the iron, and steel, into a molten state, and letting it flow down a coal tunnel or something like that. Then you separate the ‘bloom steel’ into high carbon and low carbon steel, and you are done. Some of my monsters will likely know better, but I think that is at least somewhat close.
Of course if their ‘low quality steel’ is cast iron, instead of wrought iron like I’m assuming, we might have some problems. I don’t think cast iron can be turned into high carbon steel, as cast iron has a higher carbon content than high carbon steel. At least the high carbon steel I want. The one that is good for making weapons and armor.
I ended up picking up the entire 100 kilos for the copper, bronze and iron. The ‘low quality steel’ they had turned out to be some sort of super high carbon content stuff called pig iron, and I honestly wasn’t going to pick it up, until Laura contacted me. She had been talking with Kotetsu in the factory and Kotetsu said we could use those things for a few things, so I ended up picking up about 70 kg of pig iron and 30 kg of steel.
For the prices, the copper was just three copper coins per kilo. So in total, the entire 100 kilos came to just three gold coins.
The bronze was a bit more, at 5 copper, or one small silver, per kilo.
The iron was 7 copper per kilo, whereas the pig iron was 4 copper per kilo and the steel was 25 copper per kilo. I have to say, not all that expensive. Sure the steel was a bit expensive, but I was expecting a lot worse.
My total came to 25 gold, 1 large silver and one small silver. Again, honestly speaking, I was expecting a price double that at least, so I’m more than fine with this.
I also picked up the Earl’s order, which was for 100 kilos of wrought iron, or something like that. I don’t know what he plans to do with it, but I don’t really care.
I guess one thing worth mentioning are the ingots the metals came in. There were three sizes, at least what I saw. 2 kilogram ingots, 5 kilogram ingots and 10 kilogram ingots. All of my stuff was the 5 kilo ingots, except the pig iron, which was in the form of a lot smaller ingots, only about 500 grams per ingot, as it still lacked processing.
I did get some looks from the worker as I just casually stored all of the metal into my storage, but as he didn’t ask, I don’t need to answer with a lie. Then I made sure Tahlia would use that material quality increase on all of the metals, so they would be as high of a quality as I could have them. And as a free service, I also did it for the Earl’s wrought iron, because why not? If he asks, I’ll blame this place.
Then I put in an order for 500 kilos of high quality steel, 200 kilos of copper, 200 kilos of bronze and 200 kilos of iron. I got some looks for it as well, but as soon as I brought out half of the total price, which is the norm here when you order something, the worker got to work writing up a contract for it. And as he noticed I had money, he offered some of their premium stuff as well. Well, they only had one, but it was mithril, so I made sure to get 50 kilos of mithril added to my order as well. I actually wanted 100, but they said that would be impossible. FYI, mithril cost me 3 gold per kilo, making it 12 times more expensive than steel. But honestly, it might be worth the price.
The total preorder price was 15250 copper coins, or 152 gold and two large silvers. Also known as not even one day's worth of Upstart Goblin money.
“... I think you overdid it a little.” Lua commented.
“Really? I think I kept it on a reasonable level. I honestly would have loved to take double that amount.”
“... yes. You overdid it.” Lua repeated. “Let’s go look at some clothes next.”
Our next stop was a clothing store. Because Lua asked for it. But this town had mostly work clothing for mine and forgery workers, and the regular stuff was quite overpriced, yet ugly, so we quickly called it quits. We could just go shopping in Sawyer city instead.
Instead, we left the town and headed out. Luckily the guard at the town’s gate had changed, so no extra questions for us about our one day stay.
When we were far enough away from the town, I summoned Gradius and we flew back to the west gate of Sawyer city.
“Welcome back, Sir.” The guard welcomed me. By now, most of them … well they didn’t know me, but they knew of me. You know, Overdrive and the mithril medal with the Sawyer family crest does that.
“Thanks. May we come in?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. As soon as I see the papers of you and your companion.” He reminded me that even if he knew me, I still had to show my guild card to him. Sure I could show the medal and ‘force’ my way in, but I have no real need to.
I got out my guild card, while Lua got out both her card and her papers stating that she is stable. Dhampirs have to show both when they get into a guarded city or town.
We walked through town, stopping at a few places. Including a clothing store or two and Agatha’s place. She had some choice words, mainly for me, but it's nothing I didn’t hear from Laura’s father when I first met him. It involved certain … bedroom acts. Actually, compared to Laura’s father, Agatha let me off easily. Probably because I did regrow her arm and because dhampirs can’t get pregnant unless they choose to. I reminded her that we would be coming tomorrow morning to ‘escort’ her, and then left so we could get to the Sawyer manor before dinner time.
One last set of introductions left. Let's just hope they won't have too bad of a reaction to Lua's wings.
