Chapter 38 – Back to Geola

I quickly bought what I needed. I had 420 lods on me, which were from the 330 I made during the day and the 90 I had on me from the start. I needed to keep 50 to pay the next day's rent so my budget was 370 lods.

The cheapest fans were sold for 50 lods and needed two batteries to work, with an autonomy of 48 hours. It was a circular type of fan, that had blades rotating around an axis and sending air to the front. Each battery was sold for 10, meaning that each complete unit would cost me 70. I bought 5 of them and with the 20 lods left, I bought two more batteries. I was now set for the second part of the day.

I already told Suuru I would work most of the day and part of the night. She had very mixed feelings about it but I eventually managed to convince her to let me do it. I couldn't stay dependent on her goodwill forever. On top of that, Suuru's meager income was stretched thin by providing for two people. She knew the current situation couldn't last forever and reluctantly wished me good luck. She looked at me like I was a grown-up child going out into the world for the first time, which was far from reality no matter how much she wanted to believe it to be the truth.

I teleported to Geola and managed to catch my goat friend Giya right as he was wrapping up his goods for the day. He immediately recognized me and gave me a wide smile.

"Tila! You're finally here! Long time no see!"

"Hi, Giya. It's good to see you again."

"It is! But what took you so long? I was expecting you to reach out to me much faster."

"Don't you notice anything?"

"Notice? Hmm… Oh, wait! You learned the language? Wow, in that amount of time?"

"I worked hard. Now, I can finally start doing business."

"Yes, that's smart of you. It'll be much smoother like this. Not that you won't need to use sel from time to time, though. There are a lot of foreigners visiting the city."

"Geola is a huge trading hub, right?"

"You said it. Most of the surrounding countries are partially dependent on this place for their goods. This is a paradise for merchants like us. Cough, cough. What are you going to sell?"

"Don't be too surprised. I managed to get my hands on the next generation of enchanted items. I'm betting everything on these."

"What? …Seriously? How did you get something like that?"

"Hehe, trade secret. Never mind that, how's business going for you?"

Giya was a sort of greengrocer and focused on selling fruits and vegetables. Judging by the amount of stock he had to take home, he was doing decently for himself.

"Same as usual, same as usual. Neither bad nor good. It's all fine as long as dirty thieves don't touch my money."

"Glad to hear it. Anyway, I came to you because I wanted to know how to open a stall here."

"It's not too complicated. Let me finish cleaning up and we'll register you. Cough, cough."

"Are you okay?"

"No worries, just something stuck in my throat."

I helped him put the leftover fruits and vegetables in bags and we left for his house. He deposited everything there and came out again, full of spirit.

"Follow me. We need to talk to the market manager."

We went back to the way we came from and traversed the market until we reached its end. There stood a massive species, with two large sharp horns on his head. He had dark brown fur all over his body and was monitoring the market with a sharp stare.

"Hey, Jorgen. Do you have a minute?"

Giya wasn't impressed by the imposing appearance of his counterpart and called out to him naturally.

"Giya. What's wrong?"

Even his voice was deep, the sort that would make baby species tremble in their beds.

"My friend here wants to start a stall. Can you get him a spot?"

He turned my way and checked me from top to bottom quickly.

"What's your name?"

"Tila."

"What are you selling?"

"Enchanted items."

"Alright. We don't have anything during the day but there's plenty of room for the night market. The rent is two silvers per night."

Fortunately, it wasn't more than I had, thanks to the bandits' generous contribution. I took two coins from my pocket (storage) and handed them to him. He nodded, took a piece of wood with a mark and a number on it from his belt, and exchanged it for my money.

"Here, number 38. This is the best spot that's currently available. Close to the central intersection. I'm off from work soon but remember to give back this token to Kinsen when you leave, the guy who's going to take the next shift."

"Thank you."

"Don't cause any trouble and everything will be fine."

"Of course."

"Alright. Good luck with your business. Come to me or my colleagues if you need anything."

"Thanks again."

As Giya said, the process couldn't have been simpler. There was no identity check and just paying the rent was enough to get me a spot. That was completely different from city 82, where control was much stricter.

My goat friend didn't seem to be in a hurry and accompanied me to my stall. All the while, he kept giving me bits of advice.

"If you're selling enchanted items, you'll want to aim for rich customers. Not everyone can afford to buy something so expensive and not strictly necessary."

"You'll get a lot fewer potential customers during the night so when someone's interested, do your best and convince them to buy. Cough, cough."

"Everyone will try to bargain. Check who you're dealing with and try to guess how much they want your goods and how much they're willing to pay."

And so on. I listened attentively while nodding since he was much more experienced than me, at least in the current context. Eventually, we reached my assigned spot. It was nothing grand, just a wooden table with two chairs of different sizes behind it. The table was about three meters long and 2 meters wide, which wasn't a lot but would be enough for my current needs.

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