Chapter 402: Acquisition of a Base
After sending the ten information Guild Staff members chosen by Mesaria-san, we headed towards the Eastern Island. Since we couldn’t have fun without funds, our first order of business was to cash in some of our items.
“What are we going to sell?”
After being awed by the new town for a while, Ivan suddenly asked.
“What do you think would be good?”
“Rare metals and gems have already been tried by the Hinomaru members, right?”
“Then we should go for something that hasn’t been done yet.”
“How about something we can get in Japan?”
“That’s the one.”
Ivan’s words jogged my memory. I had once gathered some cheap items that seemed sellable. Since I wasn’t in dire need of money, I had completely forgotten about them.
“Now that you mention it, I do remember that.”
“The marbles were beautiful, weren’t they?”
Fron seemed to recall as well, reminiscing about her favorite marbles. I remembered how her eyes sparkled at the sight of the countless shiny ones being sold by the thousand. In this world, everything is handmade, making it quite challenging to produce standardized mass-produced items or perfectly spherical objects.
“Alright, let’s try selling about five marbles.”
“Let’s also see if we can sell some glass gems at other shops.”
“Oh, these are some beautifully spherical ones.”
When I showed the marbles to the owner of a jewelry store on the Main Street, he seemed quite interested. The plump shopkeeper examined the marbles closely with a magnifying glass, as if savoring every detail.
“Well, how much do you think you could buy them for?”
The display cases around us held gems ranging from one hundred Jil to a maximum of ten thousand Jil. While the one-hundred Jil stones were dull enough for even amateurs to recognize, the ten-thousand Jil gems were indistinguishable from the glass gems we had.
“Hmm… From what I can see, they seem to be just glass, so how about a thousand Jil?”
“I see. That sounds good to me.”
“Thank you very much.”
Without much negotiation, we exchanged five marbles for five thousand Jil.
“Wow, so this is a thousand Jil coin?”
Once we exited the shop, Ivan curiously examined the money. The silver coins contained silver, just as their appearance suggested. I had mixed in some other coins, and it turned out that the one Jil coins were made of iron, with copper coins and Large Copper Coins appearing in increments of ten.
The currency of this continent, Fron, didn’t seem too different, but it appeared that the copper and silver content was lower in Jil.
“Delicious!”
With our newfound funds, we decided to buy some Takoyaki and share it among ourselves. Adding extra mayonnaise made it even more delicious.
“It’s cheap and tasty; this is the best!”
While enjoying our food, we sold the glass gems at the next jewelry store. We managed to sell four for twenty thousand Jil, and at the next shop, feeling a bit overconfident, I brought out a cheap cut glass that I had bought online for three thousand five hundred yen, which sold for an astonishing two hundred fifty thousand Jil.
“I look forward to doing business with you again.”
We both exchanged bright smiles as the deal was struck, but I suspected the shopkeeper thought he had gotten a bargain. I could have pushed for a higher price, but our main goal was to indulge in street food. I had no intention of taking my time to accumulate funds.
Meanwhile, our smartphones buzzed with updates from Mesaria-san. The Hinomaru members scattered across the island were using their magic tools to relay information to Mesaria-san, who then compiled it and sent us messages via Wi-Fi. While it was impossible to track members moving away from us, it was convenient to connect by simply opening a Dimensional Rift near the router.
Having accumulated enough funds for our food adventures, we continued our culinary journey when more information came in.
“What? Seriously?”
“What’s wrong?”
I instinctively stopped and stared at my smartphone, surprised by the sudden turn of events.
“They’ve acquired a vacant house that will serve as our base on this island.”
“That was fast!”
“It seems the Orichalcum ingots sold for a high price.”
“Hmm. This island is small, and there might not be many mines.”
“Indeed.”
I glanced around in response to Rio’s words, but as soon as I stepped into an alley, I noticed tightly packed narrow houses. I had thought the same when I viewed it from above; there seemed to be very little open land.
“How did they manage to acquire a base?”
“Well, let’s go check it out.”
“Right.”
Following the information from Mesaria-san, we made our way to the newly acquired vacant house. As expected, it was located far from the bustling areas, having been obtained in such a short time. After walking for about an hour from the harbor and climbing a gentle slope, we finally arrived at the house.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Grandmaster.”
In front of the house stood a familiar-looking rabbitman. Since he called me Grandmaster, he was undoubtedly a member of Hinomaru.
“This is it?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Despite having come from a cramped residential area, the entrance seemed to have a decent amount of space. It was about three times the width of the neighboring houses, but perhaps the entrance was set back, making the depth seem narrow.
As I opened the door, I found the hall to be quite shabby, but when I opened the door to the room beyond, I was shocked to find that the floor was missing halfway, leading straight to the wall on the other side. In fact, it opened directly to the sea below a cliff.
“What a view!”
“Wow, not bad at all.”
“It’s the sea—!”
“Hey! This house must have been destroyed by a landslide!”
I had suspected there was something unusual about this house, but at this point, I felt a strange sense of refreshment.