Though Nia set her 'shop' near village square to sell red and blue pots, she had not sold a single one even after few minutes. Instead, she had sold off all her honeyed buns, some sweets [they were given by Grandma Esla's granddaughter for helping. Don't you know that kid has sweet tooth and always has some sweets on her all the times?].
The reason? Guilds. They had their own people working in lifestyle professions. But this is just second day and the amount of potions, clothes etc made were not even enough for themselves. Don't forget, Nia has very low failure rate. [It's MC aura. Forget other reasons, remember on this.] Their alchemists burned through resources, raw materials and could make only few potions.
To be fair, guilds did not blame these people. Even they knew that till the proficiency, that is , the level of lifestyle skill improves, failure rates would be high. And the skills could only improve after making potions or products multiple times. Initial investment would be high but profits would be even more later on.
That did not mean, they were waiting for the alchemists, blacksmiths to grow up and make their products. They purchased items from markets too. More the better. It will help them later on. Even if it did not help them, they would make sure others would not get any benefit from it.
Thus the big 'battle' in front of Nia's shop.
But this lady, instead of waiting till the guilds fought among themselves or till they reached stalemate at least, so that she could sell her potions at higher price, she was selling them to normal people. Was she mad? Was she an idiot? Or else, she is so arrogant that she did not consider any guilds at all?
If she is arrogant, what is the basis for it? Is it her proficiency in the skill? Is she great player or a legend? Is she a rich girl in real life, with lots of money to waste inside the game to satisfy her vanity? Scratch off that last option. If she was rich, she would not open a shop and sell items.
"Lady, we were still discussing here. How could you sell your potions before knowing how much we are ready to pay?" one of the guild sales executive asked, unable to hold himself off.
"Brother, looks like you have been working long hours. I am not selling them the potions. I know they can't afford it now that you have decided to start a bidding war. Instead, I am selling other items. Infact, most of my things are now sold out. I'm just waiting for you guys to decide before closing this 'shop'. It is getting closer to closing time, you know."
Nia was not in a hurry. If she could not sell it now, she could try tomorrow. Her merchant skill will grow more slowly, that's all. [Logic behind the statement : She can't sell items now, thus less coins in her purse to buy raw materials in off-game barter site. She has to try buying after starting 3rd day of game from market place.]
"Pretty Lady, this is going nowhere. Why don't you tell us what you want and we'll see who can provide it? Do you want coins or raw materials? If so, how many?" This was from one of the respected sales executive of 'Akara guild' who had not involved in the verbal battle before.
Akara was famous for different reasons. In this guild most of higher level people were are women, beautiful women. And they held money and power in real lives too. Thus they were never 'manhandled' despite of being mainly women only guild. They had heavy security from their sub guilds which recruited very good players. So, if you messed with them, you had suffer in game and in real life too.
Nia liked this lady. Her no nonsense attitude was so refreshing compared to others bullsh*ting.
"First of all, remove recruitment from the list. I'm not joining any guild as of now."
The guild people suddenly felt a lot better. It was still any one's game to recruit the girl later.
"Secondly, I would prefer resources or raw materials over coins. But if the offer is low, I don't mind spending few hours in front of computer to convert coins to raw materials later.
Next, please don't offer weapons, equipments etc for the deal.
"You can now start bidding. But before that..."
'Now what?' this was the feeling the people in Nia's 'shop' got.
"If you are interested, you can gift me some coins and I'll sell you an important news, which will definitely help your guilds.But this is not related to the bidding now."
Nia got more than what she might have gotten from consigning the potions. Suddenly her storage bag was near to overflowing. She had seriously underestimated greed of guilds in regards to these potions.
And the news she sold to them? It was pre-order request form. She fixed the price to be little less than what was bidded today. But amount of potions that could be pre-ordered varied among the guilds. If she had good impression of them, she was ready to sell more to them. If not, you don't have to pre-order, just buy them when shop is setup.
Akara was the first guild to pre-order though they hadn't won in the bidding today. Nia replied to the pre-order message, 'To our long term business oppurtnities!'
The lady from Akara was happy.
Soon, Nia closed her shop, and again took a meandering way towards warehouse handing out items and fulfilling her merchant deals.
As she got ready to sleep, she thought of her day in game. Many might think it was boring, but it was a very successful day.