Chapter 51 - 49: The First Customer

Chapter 51: Chapter 49: The First Customer

In the afternoon, around one or two o’clock, Lu Wei welcomed his first wave of customers after opening for business.

A two-man team, both human males. Judging from their age and Equipment, they were at the "decent, but not great" level.

They were semi-rookies who had spent a year or two in the forest, had seen some combat, and had gained some Experience, primarily earning a pittance by taking on Low-Level commissions.

A little stronger than the "bottom-rung," yet far from reaching the "veteran" level.

According to the Adventurer Association’s rankings, they would be considered Black Iron Level.

However, Lu Wei usually just called this Level "roadside."

It meant the same thing, anyway.

And Adventurers like them were generally quite stingy. Most were still caught up in the fantasy of "saving up for good Equipment, heading to a higher-Level Adventurer’s Land, and making it big."

But since they were his first customers—a true milestone—Lu Wei still treated them with his most enthusiastic service.

"Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. This is a general store."

"The goods are all on the ground. Please, feel free to browse."

"In addition, this shop also offers a loot buyback service. If you have any loot that’s inconvenient to carry, you can consider selling it to us."

As the two men stared in surprise, Lu Wei quickly finished his spiel and then gave Bai Ya a meaningful look.

Following her recent "crash course," she immediately brought two cups of Pine Needle Tea to the pair.

"Please, have some tea. It’s free."

"Ah, thank you..."

The two men dazedly accepted the cups, their expressions still baffled.

They often passed the Dome Pillar on their quests; they’d just been here the day before yesterday.

Who would’ve thought that just three days later, a general store would have opened up here?

Hmm... although it was just a small, mobile stall, calling it a shop didn’t seem wrong, given that it had a sign and offered free tea.

"This is really surprising."

One of the men, whose messy hair resembled a bird’s nest, remarked, then looked up again at the string of Kobold heads.

"These Kobold heads still look pretty fresh."

"Mhm, we just killed them last night," Lu Wei said, nodding.

"Huh? The three of you killed this many Kobolds?"

"It was nothing special."

Lu Wei nodded again and said shamelessly, "It was only a dozen or so. They didn’t cause us much trouble."

"Is that so?"

The messy-haired man’s mouth fell slightly open, utterly shocked.

’After all, Lu Wei’s group of three don’t look very old—around twenty or so. How could they possibly...’

’Wait!’

Suddenly, when they saw Furen’s Tessares Steel Longsword, which he had deliberately left out of its Sword Scabbard, they both got a look of dawning realization.

As one of the top three steel-producing regions in the Kingdom, Tessares was most famous for its Armor, but the quality of its Weapons was also undeniable.

A beautifully crafted Longsword like that, even a plain one, was worth at least two Gold Coins—on par with some secondhand High Level Equipment.

Moreover, you couldn’t necessarily buy one in Heitai Town; you’d probably have to go to Kalin Port.

And a Weapon often represents its owner’s Power, so this young man was most likely a genius with immense Talent.

’More than half of that dozen or so Kobolds must have died by his Sword...’

Looking at Furen’s head of blond hair, the two men marveled inwardly, and their expressions immediately grew more respectful.

’Excellent!’

’The intimidation tactic worked!’

Seeing this, Lu Wei nodded in satisfaction. He waited a moment more before offering a timely reminder:

"So, is there anything you two would like to buy?"

"Ah... We’ll take a look!"

Snapping back to their senses, the pair quickly shifted their gaze to the goods on the ground.

’We’ve already drunk the free tea, and a powerful young expert is standing right here... Wait a minute!’

’Why do we suddenly feel like we’ve been tricked?’

’It’d be pretty awkward to not buy anything at this point, wouldn’t it?’

’Damn it! If we’d known, we wouldn’t have drunk the tea!’

Exchanging a subtle glance, they both saw a trace of regret in each other’s eyes.

Then, they began a silent exchange with just their eyes—

’What do we do now?’

’Let’s just buy something, anything, and get out of here.’

’But we don’t need anything.’

’The issue isn’t whether we need something, it’s that we might be in for it if we don’t buy anything!’

’Fine, guess we’ll just have to bite the bullet...’

After a brief, unspoken conversation, the messy-haired man pointed to a packet of pain relief powder and looked up to cautiously ask:

"Excuse me, how much is this packet of pain relief powder?"

"50 Copper Coins~"

"What? 50 Copper Coins?"

The messy-haired man froze and blurted out, "But it only sells for 10 Copper Coins in town!"

"No, no, my friend. You can’t compare the two," Lu Wei explained earnestly. "Our shop is located inside the forest. The risk is high, so it’s only normal for the prices to be a little higher, right?"

’A little? Is that what you call "a little"?!’

The messy-haired man’s eyes went wide in an instant, and he looked as if he wanted to say something in utter shock.

But the next second, catching sight of Furen out of the corner of his eye, he swallowed his words and sullenly pointed to a nighttime Alarm Bell set that included a thin rope and seven or eight small bells.

"Then what about this Alarm Bell set..."

"Two silver coins~"

"Er, the hardtack crackers should be cheaper, right?"

"Mhm, of course. A pack is only 30 Copper Coins."

"..."

’What do you mean, "of course"?!’

’You’re selling something that costs 5 Copper Coins for 30! How is that cheap in any way?’

The corner of the messy-haired man’s mouth twitched. He glanced at his companion again, looking completely helpless.

While the two of them could certainly afford a mere 30 Copper Coins, the problem was that it was a total rip-off.

"Um, sorry, we don’t really need anything..."

After hesitating for a moment, and feeling that Furen didn’t seem like an unreasonable person, the messy-haired man finally asked tentatively:

"So, is it okay if we don’t buy anything...?"

"Ah, normally, of course you can."

Lu Wei put on a troubled expression. "But since you’re our shop’s very first customers, it would feel like a bad omen if you didn’t buy anything."

"So, I’m afraid I have to ask you to buy at least one thing."

"..."

’Yeah, a perfectly reasonable excuse.’

’His tone is very polite, too.’

’The only problem is... why does it sound so much like a threat?!’

Staring blankly at Lu Wei, the pair were stunned for a long moment before finally nodding in despair.

"Alright, we’ll buy a pack of the crackers, then..."

...

...

"This is outrageous! Selling a pack of crackers for 30 Copper Coins! What’s the difference between that and highway robbery?!"

"The difference is that we actually got a pack of crackers out of it."

"Uh, I guess it’s not so bad when you put it like that?"

"What else? Didn’t you see that string of Kobold heads? I, for one, don’t want my head to end up hanging there too."

"Fine, I guess we should try to avoid the Dome Pillar from now on."

"Not necessarily. In certain situations, having a general store like that around might not be a bad thing after all."

"That’s true... Forget it, let’s not think about it. Let’s just hurry up. I can’t wait to get back and have a drink."

"Mmm..."

Three hours later, the sunlight filtering through the forest had softened, and the Dome Pillar had long since faded into a blurry silhouette in the distance.

The topic of conversation finally shifted from the "sky-high-priced crackers" to "tonight’s entertainment." The two walked faster and faster, seemingly unable to wait to sit in a tavern and enjoy some delicious roasted meat and beer.

However, at a certain moment, they suddenly stopped in their tracks, their expressions immediately turning grave.

"Do you smell that?"

"Yeah, the stench of blood. A fight must have just happened up ahead."

"Go check it out?"

"Let’s go."

After the brief exchange, the two made up their minds. They each drew their Weapons, crouched down, and slowly moved in that direction.

A few minutes later, the stench of blood grew thicker, and the babbling of a stream became clearer.

Hiding behind a thicket of bushes, the two carefully parted the leaves in front of them.

And then...

"!!!!"

With a start, both men’s eyes shot wide open, completely taken aback by the scene before them.

Two horribly mangled corpses lay by the bank of the stream, their intestines and organs spilling out. It was a gruesome sight.

But that wasn’t what shocked them the most.

After all, in their past adventures, it wasn’t as if they’d never seen dead bodies. They had even personally witnessed a companion get half his neck bitten off by a goblin lurking in the shadows.

So two Adventurer corpses alone were nothing to be alarmed about.

What truly filled them with Fear was another, massive corpse not far away—

A beheaded bear goblin.