Lucio walked out the store and went back to his room in the inn and threw the bundles on the long dry grass on the floor. He looked at the pot and the small mountain of dry and fresh herbs as he thought of his next step.
"I need firewood…." Lucio muttered as he walked out again. Before buying firewood, he hired a bullock cart for ease of transportation and placed the herbs and pot on the cart before asking the rider to move to a nearby shop which sold firewood.
The man directed the oxen to a large warehouse and said,
"The owner should be inside. I'll wait here."
Lucio nodded and walked inside. There were a few workers and a man sat on a chair as he looked over at the work that the workers did. Lucio walked to the man on the chair and said
"I need some firewood."
"We don't sell "some" firewood. We sell in bulk and the least amount we sell is one full cart." The man said as he smirked at Lucio.
"Tch. How much?"
"Two silvers."
"That's it?" Lucio asked, surprised.
"Yeah. Most families chop their own firewood so it's free. We mostly sell firewood to craftsman like blacksmiths, locksmiths and bakers as they use a lot of wood but don't have the time to chop the wood themselves.
If my wood isn't cheap, they will buy their own slaves for chopping down firewood for them."
Lucio nodded as he understood what the man had said and paid him twenty bronze coins upfront.
"I have a bullock cart outside. Load all the wood into it."
The man smiled and ordered his men to get the work done fast.
Lucio placed the pot and the herbs on the ground while the workers filled up the cart and then placed them back on top of all the wood and climbed up.
The wood was secured in place with a strong hemp rope, so the wood didn't fall off from the cart as it moved towards outskirts of the town.
A few minutes later, Lucio was busy unloading the cart in the outskirts of the forest. It took him two hours just for unloading and he regretted not hiring someone to do the work for him although he got a few exp points from doing the work himself.
He paid the rider two bronze coins and looked around him. There were many tents that were built there and Lucio guessed the reason.
It was simple, people who couldn't afford to stay at the inns, slept at this place and went to work in the day as they could technically buy food that would last them two or three days with a single bronze coin if used wisely.
Lucio then walked over to a nearby tent and saw that it was empty but some embers were still going, so he picked a piece of burning coal and walked back to his area and started a fire with the hemp rope after cutting a small part of it from the end.
He then added some firewood on top before walking back to the town to get some water that he had totally not forgotten.
After a while he came back in the same bullock cart that he had used before as the man had offered to help, which Lucio quickly accepted.
Five huge barrels full of water were placed beside the firewood and Lucio filled his pot halfway with the water and added some of the long dry grass into it.
While the tea boiled, Lucio walked back to the town to rent an empty barrel. There were people who rented out barrels and Lucio was grateful to them as buying a single barrel cost about ten silvers.
Lucio had to pay one bronze coin for renting a barrel for a day, totalling up to twelve bronze coins as he rented six barrels for two days. The water was free as he just took it from the inn.
He poured the tea into the empty barrel before adding in more grass and water into the pot that still had wet grass in it. Lucio wanted to extract every single bit from it.
He repeated the process of adding the grass and water after storing the tea from the pot.
When there was too much grass, he simply added water for two or three cycles of making diluted tea before throwing away the grass and repeating the process with fresh grass and water.
He continued this until the sky turned dark and left the place after putting the barrels into his inventory when no one saw him as those were the only things that were expensive.
Lucio had used up all the dry grass and had four barrels filled with tea as he walked back to the inn, leaving the fire lit with pot full of water. He didn't bother sniffing the fire out as it would burn off by itself, leaving him some charcoal for the next day.
Lucio took out the leather bag filled with silver and the one filled with bronze and a few silvers before counting all his wealth.
He had a hundred and fifty silvers in the bag that the butler had given him and sixty-four silvers in the other bag that seemed like it would tear any second.
When it came to bronze coins, there were three hundred and forty-seven of them in the bulging bag, his total wealth amounting to 264 silvers and 347 bronze coins, excluding the massive wealth in his bank treasury.
The money he made was the by-product of having fun and grinding exp. Lucio also didn't like to the huge amount of wealth as things would get boring.
He knew himself more than anyone and knew that if he ever took out the money in his system treasury for any purpose that isn't very important, he would continue using it for random things, making life boring which he didn't really want to see happening.
He walked to the bar and set his table properly before putting his silvers and bronze coins into two separate pots and placing them under the table.
'Time to pull him deeper into the pit…' Lucio thought as he sat down.
He passed some time as he tossed a coin while he watched the other stalls and games being played. He wouldn't start unless there are enough people in the room, which happened only after approximately an hour later.
Time passed and the nearly empty room was packed with various people who were gambling, playing or either just simply talking. Some of them despaired after loosing a huge amount of money and some happily walked out with bags of silver and bronze.
Lucio stretched until a satisfying *crack* was heard and stood up, announcing the start of the game and many who were specifically waiting for him to start, flocked over.
The man who won fifty silvers last light was among them. Lucio was very happy inside but frowned at him before calling Betty over.
"Try distracting the man who won big yesterday. Make him go to the other stalls or something. I don't care what you do, I want him out of here."
Betty simply nodded and walked away. Lucio started his game and engaged the crowd happily.
*****
Kaeso Arrianus was a rich merchant who managed to make a name for himself in the Slave Trading field. He earned an average of ten silvers every day by selling slaves.
He had a habit of gambling and made an average profit of two silvers every night with a few exceptions where he either won big or lost a lot of wealth.
Last night he had found a fool who introduced a new game to the people and it was quite famous.
Unfortunately for the boy who sat on the chair, Kaeso Arrianus had found a way to guess things right most of the times as the boy's expressions were easy to read and when a huge amount was involved, it was almost impossible to hide his expression.
Kaeso took advantage of this fact and won fifty silvers last night, putting the winning amount at the top three of his best gambling wins.
Kaeso had come back to win big tonight and he brought two hundred silvers, planning on doubling it.
He smiled when he saw the boy call his assistant after spotting Kaeso and smiled inwardly. 'Do what you want, boy. I'll play along with you for now and come back when you start the other game mode.'
Soon, a gorgeous woman walked up to him and started a conversation. Kaeso went along with her and let her guide him to the other stalls as he kept an eye on the crowd.
The games and stalls were all fun and interesting but the urge to make hundreds of silvers overpowered his desire for a good night with a gorgeous lady.
He bought the woman a lot of wine, and got her drunk in two hours before walking back with a smile "Heh, amateurs."