Kaga Michio
Current levels & equipment:
Explorer Lv.16
Hero Lv.13
Herbalist Lv.1
Equipment:
Durandal
Leather Armor
Leather Jacket
Leather Gloves
Leather Shoes
After we defeated the first floor's Floor Boss for the second time, we headed straight to the Adventurer's Guild to sell the Crude Drugs what we made from its Drop Items. Technically we could go to the second floor, but we decided to postpone it until we get our hands on more medicinal items. Roxanne told me that we won't have to worry about being poisoned on the first and second floors, but it's better to be safe than sorry. That way, if we do end up getting attacked by something that can use poison, we will be ready to counter it at any given time.
First off, we're selling the branches and Poison Antidote Pills I have made at the Guild's counter. I know that a viable option here was to leave some of the pills for ourselves, but let's be honest here, if all it takes to make them is killing the Floor Boss on the first floor for the leaves it drops over and over again, then that won't be a problem for us. And since the both of us acquired the Herbalist Job, then we can cheat the system a little by having some of it on us at all times.
「Here you go.」
The very nice (and well endowed) lady behind the counter returned to us with the money for everything we have sold her plus the additional 30% from my Skill.
「So, do you sell any medicine besides Poison Antidotes?」
「Of course, sir. Besides Poison Antidotes, we also sell Potions and Remedies, the cheapest ones for only 60 Nar each. We also have Anti-paralysis Potions, Softeners and Cure-All's, 100 Nar each.」
My guess is that Potions recover HP while Remedies do the same for MP? As for the rest, they probably heal various abnormal status changes, but I have no idea which of them are going to be an absolute necessity for now, so…
「Give me two Softeners and two Anti-Paralysis Pills.」
For the time being that seems like the most practical thing to do. Since I don't know how many of them we are actually going to use, it is better not to buy anything in needlessly large quantities.
「Understood.」
The woman left her seat and returned with the items shortly after, placing two white and two yellow pills before me.
「And those are?」
「Allow me to explain: the white ones are the Softening Medicine, while the yellow ones are the Anti-Paralysis Medicine.」
Oh, so the effects are color coded? Neat.
Just to be absolutely sure I appraised them myself, and it was just like the lady said: white ones where Softeners, yellow ones were Anti-Paralysis, there could be no mistake about that. The name of the Anti-Paralysis Medicine was pretty self explanatory: it is the medicine that cures the Paralysis status effect. But then, what does the Softeners do? Going by the name, it should have something to do with fixing the stiffness of the body, so maybe it is used to cure Petrification, or however this effect is called here? Anyway, no further explanations were given to me, so I just placed four silver coins on the counter.
The lady counts each coin carefully and pushes the pills towards me one by one. But even though I bought more than one item, my 30% discount didn't activate, and it is starting to piss me off. When I was buying hot water and lanterns at the Veil Pavilion it always seemed to work as long as I was buying at least two of them, so I wonder why it didn't work this time?
「What about something for the recovery of both mind and body? What are the prices of those medicines?」
「The cheapest healing medicine are the Nourishment Pills, costing 60 Nar, and the cheapest exhaustion Remedies are the red Strengthening Pills, also costing 60 Nar.」
「Then give me two of those as well.」
I decided to buy them as well. I am sure that having HP and MP recovering medicines will benefit me, if not in the future then in the long run. The lady left her seat again and returned with another set of Pills: blue ones and red ones. According to the appraisal, the blue ones were the Nourishing Pills and red ones were the Strengthening Pills. In the end, I guess it's good that they all have different colors, since without it distinguishing between them would be pretty much impossible.
「Thank you for your purchase. That will be 240 Nar.」
「All right.」
So the discount didn't work this time either.
「Ah, I am terribly sorry to ask this of you, sir, but could you make your payment in bronze coins?」
「Sure, no problem.」
I said, handing two silver coins and fourty bronze coins to her. Is is customary to pay for those Pills with bronze coins? Because if so then I didn't know that and no one bothered to inform me about that. And besides, she should be able to tell that I gave her the exact amount of money she requested, 240 Nar, simply by checking the amount of silver and bronze coins.
「I am truly sorry for the inconvenience, sir.」
Well, if she honestly feels bad about it, then I guess there's no reason dwell on the matter any further. She then collected each coin separately, giving me one Pill every sixty coins. It took a while, but when she finished, I was absolutely certain that the total amount of money required for that transaction was 240 Nar indeed.
「Thank you very much for your patience, sir. I have confirmed that the right price has been paid for your items.」
Well duh, of course it was. It should be obvious to anyone who could perform basic calculations in their head. Unless… could it be that she is unbale to calculate the equation of 60 x 4 = 240 in a flash?
I don't know what is the level of education in this world, but judging by the fact that the percentage of literate people is so low that they had to create a profession of Substitute Reader, it cannot be very high.
I know for a fact that Merchants have the Skill called Calculating, which allows them to perform complicated calculations on the spot. But if this lady right here cannot do that, then that would mean that ordinary citizens or Villagers do not have access to it as long as they don't have the Job of a Merchant. And if they cannot calculate properly then that means the would be unbale to factor discounts into prices, because how can you know how to calculate 30% of something when you cannot even do basic multiplication and division. However, my 30% discount is supposed to be effective at all times, so why is it that it works when I'm buying things from the Slave Merchant or the Innkeeper, but from the clerk at the Adventurer's Guild?
「Who is responsible for calculating the prices for all the purchases?」
I asked the lady.
「All the prices are set by the officials at the Guild's temple, but that is something everybody who came there to have a Job Change should know about.」
Damn it, another sticky subject that I had no idea about! I should just drop this subject entirely if I don't want to get into unnecessary trouble.
So apparently this lady thinks I am an Adventurer. Well, I have my Warp point set up on the back wall of the Adventurer's Guild's building and I've been coming here quite often to sell my items, so I guess I cannot really blame her for thinking that, and honestly, I much prefer it to stay that way.
「Is there anything else I should know about the medicines?」
「They should be kept in your Item Box at all times to avoid them getting spoilt or damaged. If they do end up like that, the Guild won't buy them off of you, so please bear that in mind.」
「Okay, got it.」
Thankfully, she just offered me an explanation without asking any further questions. It might not have been much, but at least I have learned something new again today. After I packed all the Pills into my backpack, we left the Adventurer's Guild.
So the clerks in the Guild are not responsible for calculating the prices of items themselves. This makes sense. She doesn't have the skills necessary for the proper calculation of discounts, so my 30% discount won't activate. So maybe that means that it will work with Merchants who do have the Calculation Skill, and with them only?
Calculation. Looks like this Skill might be more important than I actually gave it credit for.