Chapter 62 – Budget

I still had a bit more than two golds on me and that became our budget.

"For the fruits, give me some apples, tomatoes, and oranges. For the vegetables, peas, cabbage, cucumber, and onions. Ah, and some potatoes, too."

Giya gladly sold us a good quantity of each, making a great sale on this day. The total cost was 77 silvers, which he rounded to 70 after a discount. Two golds were way too much to buy food here. Even those 70 silvers got us around 80 kgs of food. My merchant friend was all smiles to earn so much in one go, while we were the same, acquiring some basic stock for so cheap, at least in terms of the inner world.

After saying our goodbyes, we went back to 82 and headed to our market spot. Since we were newcomers, it wasn't situated in a great location, in a small alley at the end of the market, and with low traffic. At least, it wasn't during the night like in Geola.

There was no night market in the inner world in the first place because it didn't make sense. The city population here was probably less than a tenth of Geola and people didn't feel the need to spend resources to light streets during the night. Evenings were generally spent quietly at home, chatting or playing some simple games with friends and family. In a way, despite being a lot more advanced in terms of technology, 82 was a much more boring place to live in than Geola.

Suuru had spent a few hours the previous day sculpting a large metal table with her remaining scrap metal. We used it as the main support in our booth, placing the food on top of it. As for the prices, we made it simple. One kilogram of food was generally worth 70 lods in the dome. As such, we priced everything in the range of 50 lods, which implied a 30% cheaper price compared to market standards.

Now that we were ready, we only had to wait. Fortunately, our prices were too attractive for people to ignore. Since our products looked good and fresh, there was little hesitation whenever someone was interested in our goods. The only thing that limited us was the low number of passersby. Even then, our stock sold at a decent pace.

We initially thought that 80 kgs of food would last us for the whole day but we soon realized we were wrong. We ended up selling everything within four hours. People here didn't bargain so that netted us 4000 lods. Suuru was amazed by the large amount of money.

"To think we made so much in so little time…"

"You said it. This was a good idea. Imagine what will happen when we start selling water too."

"Yes. Why do I feel like I was wasting my life before that?"

"That's the joy of being a trader. Wasn't it thrilling to get richer every time someone bought from us?"

"It was. I wanted to smile but I tried hard not to."

I saw the corners of her mouth curving several times during the day but I kept that information to myself.

"Right. That's why I can't stop doing this job. We're going to make it big, Suuru!"

"Yes!"

"Good food every day! We'll get a nicer house too! Life is looking great!"

"It is! Hahaha!"

We laughed stupidly for some time, the people around looking at us weirdly, but we didn't care. When we had enough, we cleaned up our stall and teleported back home. Due to finishing our business in the inner world so fast, we had some time in front of us. We took a small break before teleporting to Geola and buying some lunch there. After that, we returned home once more.

"Here's my idea, Suuru. You can use the rest of the day to focus on your magic training. I'll take care of the selnic items sales."

She hesitated a second, looking guilty.

"Are you sure? I can help you with Geola too."

"It's fine, I've done it a couple of times already. It's more important for you to rank up."

"Well… Okay. Thank you, Tila."

"No need for thanks between us."

I was glad she was in a much better mood now, the disastrous attempt at having sex from the previous day pushed to the back of her mind.

"One more thing. I don't think it's sustainable to buy from Giya every time. I'll try to find a place that sells food in bulk."

"Okay. I don't know much about being a merchant so I'll leave it to you, Tila."

"No problem, that's my expertise. You just focus on your magic."

"All right."

Now that our schedule was established, I teleported back to 82's city center. Since we had a much greater budget, I planned to buy more diverse selnic items on top of the usual fans. The choices were relatively obvious. A fridge was pretty much a given since it allowed food to last much longer. And then, in the same food-related concept, an oven was a good complementary item to have. I kept a small amount of lods in reserve and used everything to buy a small stock of those three items.

Next, I teleported to Geola. Water would never be a problem in terms of supply so the main issue was food. No matter what, we needed a better food supplier than a market merchant like Giya. There were two possibilities. Either there existed a wholesaler system just like back in my world, or I would need to buy directly from the source, which meant directly from farmers.

I also didn't want to ask Giya since it would feel like I would cut him from some profits by buying directly at the source. I had no choice but to ask someone else. Fortunately, the market was full of people with such knowledge. I soon found an extremely talkative and bored-looking merchant selling some pottery. In exchange for buying a few of his goods, he answered all the questions I had and more.

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