A/N: Alright I'm ready for round 2, after likeā¦ 2 months.
It was a quiet night in the Castle Town of Melromarc. The current shield, Naofumi Iwatani, was pretty tired after a full day of monster grinding with his companion Myne. He was going to continue the grind but Myne wanted to go back to the inn to turn in for the night.
Unknown to her, Naofumi couldn't sleep. He was still fascinated by the new world he was in. Still being curious about the town he decided to go outside and walk around for a bit, being filled with wonder as he passed by many shops that specialized in many fields like magic and potion-making.
"Wow this place is so cool and interesting. It's not even morning and I can feel the life this town breaths. Although, I do need to find a faster way to level up. If I keep going at this rate, I'll most likely be under-leveled before the wave hits, and being useless means death." Naofumi looks down at the shield on his arm, seeing the reflection of his face in the orb in the middle. "I've already promised that I will fight for this world, let's not die before I can make that a reality."
Naofumi continues on a path through the castle town until he approaches a light in an alleyway. "What is that?" Naofumi questions himself while staring down the alleyway, and being curious decides to walk down the path only to find a tent.
Naofumi scratches his head as he looks at the tent. "A tent? Did a circus happen a couple of days earlier?." Many questions run through Naofumi's mind until he hears a voice.
"Well well well, it appears that I have some business" A rather short man in a dark purple suit and top hat walks outside the tent to greet his new customer.
"Oh, do come inside, my dear customer." Naofumi, very wary of the voice, takes a minute to think before deciding to go inside the tent.
***
"If you are here to do business, you're in luck, sir hero."
"You know who I am?"
"I apologize if you wanted to keep it a secret, but I saw your shield and thought it would be a great opportunity to show off my merchandise." The small man chuckled.
"What merchandise? isn't this for a circus?." Naofumi asked, being rather puzzled by the situation. They continue walking to the back before he gets the answer.
"Oh that's more of a side hustle, the real supply is in the back."
"Supply of what?"
The man walks over to a curtain and pulls away. "Well, Slaves, of course!". As Naofumi passes through a curtain, he looks at dozens of cages full of creatures and people of all shapes and sizes.
"S-slaves!?" Naofumi said with a concerned tone.
"Y-you're a slave trader!" This time said with anger, raising his shield against the rather short man.
"Indeed I am, the trade of demi-humans and beast-men is legal in this country, so I decided to take this business opportunity and sell them myself!. And what a good idea that was."
"Demi-humans, beast-menā¦, what are they, exactly?".
"Intrigued, huh?, As expected from the hero of the shield,"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"That is not important at the moment. Regardless, Demi-humans and beast-men are half-human, half monster-like creatures. Demi-humans take more of a human appearance with some monster traits, whereas beast-men tend to look more like monsters than actual humans. Some even have the uncanny ability to transform between a human and monster form.
(Side note: Raphtalia isn't here yet)
"W-well, alright then. I'm not here to buy a slave, though." Naofumi slowly lowers his shield.
"A shame but fear not. If slaves don't interest you, I sell monsters as well. By registering them to yourself you'll be able to command them for all sorts of tasks."
"Monsters huh?" Naofumi thinks about the offer for a moment as he fully lowers his shield, with a monster he can gain some levels faster.
"If I get a monster, would it be a lot easier to defeat more monsters and level up? Naofumi asked.
"Indeed, while registered it will share the exp gained with you."
Naofumi gave it some thought for a moment before agreeing. "Interesting, fine I'll take one.
"Good, Good now follow me." The man says. He takes Naofumi to an area of the tent that holds all the monsters.
"We have the usual types of monsters you'll see during adventuring, like Frogs and Usapil. Then we have the more rare creatures, like Griffins and the occasional dragon, sadly I sold the last flying one a while back.
"Well there goes that option, but it's cool that dragons exist."
"Sorry about that. Now over here is exotic type section, my favorite kind since these go for thousands of silvers."
"But there's only one thing here?" Naofumi complained as he looked at a deer with wings."
"Yes, this section is still a work in progress. But it will be worth it in the end."
"I don't know about that, they seem pretty expensive for my current amount of coins. Almost everything here is." Naofumi complained.
While Naofumi is looking at the monster cages, he spots a table with a bunch of eggs. "So what's that one over there?"
"Oh it's just a new thing I'm trying, it's called a monster lottery. For only 100 silvers you can get a monster egg, although which one you get is a mystery."
"Sounds like a lame gotcha game. What is the grand prize anyways."
"A dragon, although you are guaranteed a Filolial if you play."
"And that is?"
The man points to a cage holding two sleeping Filolial. "These are Filolial. They are the birds you usually see outside pulling the carts. They also have pretty strong kicks if you plan on using them for combat as well."
"How much would a fully grown adult cost then, assuming they're that useful."
"At least 300 silvers, but both options are still on the table if you like to go for the grand prize."
"Totally a gotcha game, is there even a dragon in here."
"Of course it isā¦ probably."
Naofumi sighed as he pulled out his pouch. "Eh, I don't have much to lose if I play," he said as he pulled out some silver from his money bag and chose an egg.
Thanks for reading
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