Chapter 52 - 50: A Great Success for the Soft Opening

Chapter 52: Chapter 50: A Great Success for the Soft Opening

"To sell so much in just one afternoon... it’s incredible!"

As night fell, the campfire was lit once again. Sparks flickered and danced around the iron pot, inside of which stewed a white, forearm-length creek fish.

In addition, there were some wild vegetables and the indispensable mushrooms.

This time, however, they weren’t giant parasol mushrooms, but light-brown tree mushrooms with a hint of woody fragrance, offering a completely different flavor.

"I thought everyone would be scared off by the prices at first. I can’t believe we actually sold things."

"Goods worth a total of two silver coins have already sold for more than 5 Silver Coins!"

"And we still have half our inventory left!"

"If we sell everything, I feel like our profit could be over one Gold Coin!"

"This is just insane!"

Sitting by the fire, Bai Ya’s voice was filled with excitement. Her eyes showed no trace of fatigue from a busy day, only a hunger for money.

Lu Wei, for his part, also looked relaxed and cheerful, quite satisfied with the Golden Sword Hu Grocery Store’s "first day of business."

It was probably due to the Dome Pillar’s location. Although no Adventurers passed by in the morning, customers started flocking in from the afternoon onward.

After those two men left, two more groups came one after another!

One was a veteran four-person team with an Archer.

The other was a team of pure rookies, with six people, no less.

Hmm... regarding the size of an adventuring party, there aren’t any special rules. It usually just depends on the situation.

As long as everyone agrees, any number of people is fine.

But this wasn’t warfare; more people wasn’t necessarily better.

Especially in a Low Level Adventurer’s Land like the Gelan Forest, parties are usually kept to four people or less.

Two to three melee fighters, one ranged, and ideally, someone with high Perception to act as a scout—that’s more or less the perfect setup.

Any more than that, and it can actually hinder the party’s movement, increase the chances of being ambushed, and even make infighting more likely.

Therefore, unless they’ve accepted some extremely difficult High Level commission, you rarely see a six-person team.

Only rookies would cling to the mistaken belief that there’s "strength in numbers" and march into the forest in such a large group.

And yet, who would have known that this six-person team would become Lu Wei’s biggest customer of the day.

The reason was a bit absurd—

Their backpack full of medicine had been snatched by monkeys during lunch.

So they had no choice but to restock at his place.

To be fair, the ridiculousness of this incident was on par with Lu Wei and his two companions nearly getting into a fight with mushrooms. Both were worthy of being the "Joke of the Day" at any tavern.

But who doesn’t have an embarrassing past?

’Once I become the richest man on the continent, this will be nothing more than a ’funny little anecdote from my youth.’’

’Maybe I can train a few monkeys to specifically snatch rookie backpacks.’

’That way, I’d even save money on procurement...’

Having thought up another cost-saving trick in the blink of an eye, Lu Wei felt quite pleased with himself. He figured he was becoming more and more like a qualified Crafty Merchant.

A moment later, he untied the specially-marked Public Account Purse from his waist and carefully counted the coins inside.

It was about what Bai Ya had calculated: a total of 5 silver and 12 copper.

Excluding the cost of the goods sold today, the gross profit was about four Silver Coins.

In addition to that, he had also received two fresh Forest Wolf Hides and a few rusty, even nicked, One-handed Swords from the veteran four-person team.

Kobolds perform simple maintenance on their weapons, but goblins don’t, so this was clearly loot obtained from killing the latter.

For veteran Adventurers, this kind of loot was disposable. Even if they picked it up temporarily, they’d just toss it once they found something more valuable.

As it happened, the team ran into Lu Wei midway through their journey, so they sold it all to him, clearing up space in their packs ahead of time.

All in all, he had made a deal with all three groups of customers this afternoon, which gave Lu Wei a major confidence boost.

However, he also noticed a few problems.

The main one was having too much free time.

This wasn’t a town, after all. Lu Wei estimated that even after the Golden Sword Hu Grocery Store made a name for itself, he’d get ten groups of customers a day at most.

The rest of the time, he could only wait around with nothing to do.

And as everyone knows, time is money.

Which meant he was wasting a huge amount of money!

’How can this be acceptable!’

’A true tycoon masterminds things from a safe location, not acts as a salesman in a dangerous grocery store!’

’Looks like hiring an employee needs to be put on the agenda as well.’

’That way, once the grocery store’s business stabilizes, I’ll have time to try out other business ventures.’

Putting the coins back in the purse, Lu Wei looked up at this thought and made a firm decision:

"We’re going back to town first thing tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow? But we still have half our inventory left to sell."

Bai Ya, who was poking the firewood to make the campfire burn brighter, looked up in a daze, her expression blank.

"It’s fine. We’ve earned enough this time."

Lu Wei glanced at the small pile of "scrap metal" next to them and shook his head. "Besides, today was just a soft opening. It was just an experiment to see if opening a shop in the forest could even make money."

"And since it can, we definitely need to prepare more goods all at once to meet all kinds of customer needs."

"Oh, okay."

Bai Ya now hung on his every word. She nodded immediately. "Then I’ll get my backpack packed in a little while."

"Hmm... we don’t necessarily have to take everything back."

Lu Wei thought for a moment. "Let’s leave most of the supplies and stuff here. We’re coming back in a few days anyway."

"Eh? But won’t they get stolen?"

"Just find a place and hide it."

"Huh? A-Am I supposed to stay behind and watch the shop?"

Her eyes widened in a daze, and she suddenly grew nervous. "But I’d be a little scared all by myself..."

???

’What are you talking about?’

Lu Wei was completely baffled. "When did I say you had to stay and watch the shop?"

Bai Ya said weakly, "Just now. You told me to find a place to hide..."

"..."

’My god, is this the level of Comprehension you get with 1 point of Perception??’

’Can she only understand things literally??’

’Maybe I should give the Pendant back to her. Otherwise, this is just too dumb...’

Lu Wei’s mouth twitched. With a strange expression, he explained, "I meant for you to find a place to hide the supplies, not to hide yourself."

"Ah, i-is that so? I thought..."

Finally realizing, Bai Ya’s face instantly turned bright red. She lowered her head and fidgeted.

"My Perception is a little low, so sometimes..."

’It’s fine, low is low.’

’After all, the two points of Perception you lost were added to mine.’

"It’s alright. Furen is a Magic Dullard, you know. Everyone has their flaws. No need to feel bad about it."

Lu Wei comforted her with great understanding. "Besides, we’re teammates. How could we possibly look down on you? Right, Furen?"

"Huh? What?"

On the other side, Furen, who had been staring blankly at the fire, looked up, confused. He clearly hadn’t been listening to their conversation.

This was a rare occurrence.

"What’s wrong with you?"

Lu Wei looked at him, puzzled. "What are you thinking about?"

"Sorry, I was just suddenly thinking about Zovir."

Furen scratched his head, a little embarrassed. "I wonder how he’s doing now, if he’s going hungry again."

’Who’s Zovir?’

’Oh, that little slave.’

’Such overflowing sympathy.’

Lu Wei said helplessly, "I doubt it. Didn’t Clara say they’d be able to find a job that would at least feed them?"

"Yeah... I hope so."

Furen averted his gaze, his face a little red, and he suddenly became inexplicably shy.

’No, wait, what are *you* getting all fidgety about?’

Seeing this, Lu Wei was once again baffled. It took him a good while to vaguely understand the reason.

’Zovir my ass, I bet you’re just thinking about Clara!’

’Tch. And you want to be the greatest Warrior?’

Shooting Furen a disdainful glance, Lu Wei couldn’t be bothered with him anymore.

Meanwhile, Bai Ya had recovered from her earlier embarrassment and asked curiously, "Captain, what’s wrong with Furen?"

Lu Wei answered casually, "Nothing much. He’s just pining for his lover."

"Ooh!"

Bai Ya’s interest was instantly piqued. "Who is it? It must be a beautiful, high-born noble lady!"

Lu Wei shook his head. "No, it’s Tock."

"..."

Bai Ya: !!!!