Novel Full 303 Stray merchant
Mathew squeezed at Merchant’s shadows. His fingers sank into the seemingly empty space, only for the shadows to fully coat them before surging forth along his arm and then expanding into a cloud that covered Mathew whole.
The usual process then happened, of the shadows filling every nook and cranny of space around the young man before he couldn’t see anything but the familiar darkness.
The shadows then solidified… before seemingly fading away, revealing the look Mathew already had quite a lot of chances to get used to.
‘Not great, not terrible,’ he thought, staring at entire two shelves of items standing in the middle of nothingness and an offering altar right between them.
Two entire shelves of items made this merchant far better than the first one Mathew summoned back at the school or the one he summoned at the media building. Yet, when compared to the second or third merchant that he summoned in each of those locations, not to speak about the upgradeable one, the one he was visiting right now fell short by a huge margin.
‘I can’t see anything extraordinary too,’ Mathew thought as he stepped closer to the shelves and took a closer look at the items displayed there.
The shelf to Mathew’s left was filled with the usual stuff like food rations, packs with six bottles of water each, some basic tools, and then what looked like ordinary clothes.
Out of the two, it was the right shelf that caught Mathew’s attention as it was filled with weapons.
There were three different kinds of bows, four quivers with different types of arrows, and then four different types of melee weapons.
‘An ax, a hammer, a machete, and a sword,’ Mathew thought as he ensured he didn’t miss anything of interest.
When it came to arrows, he outright ignored the topic right away. He never shot a bow in his life and as such, it came as no surprise that he couldn’t really understand the perks and downsides of each of the four types of arrows he could buy.
The only interest Mathew showed was in the close-range weapons, each prized fifty zombie cores.
‘Ax is the easiest to use and pretty good when it comes to fighting stronger zombies… But…’ Mathew twisted his lips in an ugly grimace. ‘Right now, I don’t need the power it offers. What I need, is speed.’
For this very reason, Mathew instantly eliminated both the ax and the hammer from the pool of what he could pick. And as he looked at the sword and machete that remained on the shelf for him to choose…
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“Using the cores stored in my storage, I wish to purchase three basic swords,” he said out loud.
“Purchase…” the merchant’s robotic voice appeared as per usual. Then, the offering bowl in the middle of the shop’s subspace lit up.
For but a second, Mathew could see a handful of cores appear in there… only for them to explode in their usual burst of light. And once the light receded, the sword in his hand disappeared while three more appeared on the sacrificial bowl.
“Completed,” the merchant’s automated voice completed its sentence.
“Off to the storage you go,” Mathew muttered as he grabbed the weapons and threw them through the window of his storage that accompanied him even within the merchant’s subspace.
“I wish to sell my saber,” Mathew then said, raising his eyes toward the place where the shadows were the densest.
“Calculating the basic value.”
“Calculating the experience gained.”
“Calculating the damage.”
“The saber can be bought…”
The merchant’s voice stopped for a second after uttering a quick few lines.
‘I can almost hear the gears turning,’ Mathew thought, patiently waiting for the answer.
“The saber can be bought for seven thousand fifty-three cores,” the merchant then announced.
‘WOAH!’ Mathew’s eyes opened up wide. ‘I didn’t expect that at all…’ he thought, taking his sweet time to process the information.
Seven thousand cores. That was more than enough to establish several fortresses. Maybe even enough to pay for whatever came after the three fortresses would fall under his control.
It was also a number that allowed Mathew to level up a whole damn bit… if only his class restriction didn’t limit just how many of his attributes he could actively use.
‘Should we go back right away to level up girls?’ Mathew thought, taking a moment to think through the possibility.
Yet, rather than accepting the deal, Mathew ended up shaking his head and closing his eyes.
“Let’s not go through with this transaction for now,” he announced.
‘As great of a prize as it is, downgrading our weapons right as we are about to have a showdown with Marcus…’ Mathew thought, biting his lips and shaking his head.
‘There will always be time to sell those sabers later,’ Mathew decided as he opened his eyes.
“I wish to go back to the real world,” he then announced, happy with the results he achieved during the visit.
The merchant didn’t react to Mathew’s ultimate refusal to process the transaction. And when he wished to get out, the entire realm shattered, turning into shadowy mist before completely falling apart.
‘I’m back,’ Mathew thought once the shadows dispersed, allowing him to see the room exactly as it was when he left it.
“Okay, I’m done,” he said, raising his head and looking straight at Peter.
“Huh?” the middle-aged man twitched before pulling his eyebrows together. “But you didn’t do anything at all?” he pointed out with a confused expression on his face. “Didn’t you say you needed a minute?”
“It’s okay, just lead the way,” Mathew said while waving his hand at the man.
“Well… if you say so,” Peter muttered before shrugging his shoulders, turning around, and then leaving the room.
“Before we go,” Mathew muttered, quickly reaching for the storage window floating near the merchant’s head and pulling out the three blades he obtained from the merchant.
He then passed two of them to Nadia and Leila respectively while keeping one for himself. Yet, rather than just glossing over Norbert, he pulled out the handgun he obtained in the clash before and passed it over to the former policeman.
“You are going to make a much better use of those than we ever could,” Mathew said, parting ways with the gun he obtained just recently.
“Do you…” Norbert accepted the gun, casting a strangely reluctant look at it before raising his eyes to Mathew. “Do you expect a fight?” he asked.
“That solely depends on whether I understand Marcus as well as I hope I do,” Mathew replied while shaking his shoulders. “If I’m right, then everything should go smoothly and without any bloodshed,” he claimed while turning around and facing toward the doors.
Mathew then took a step forward, eager to follow Peter… Yet, as soon as he took a single step, he stopped.
“Keep in mind,” he turned his head over his shoulder and looked at his companions. “If I’m wrong about the guy…”
Mathew didn’t need to finish his sentence. The determined look that he saw in everyone’s eyes was more than enough to confirm for him his companions were ready.
“Well, let’s just hope we will be able to avoid the conflict, then,” he muttered before turning his head back towards the doors and picking up his pace. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just help each other out?” he pondered as he got on the move and left the room.