Neil left the inn and began wandering around the town in search of useful stores, even though he knew the larger areas of the game from his prior experience. Navigating these towns was a new thing for him that he was now struggling with.
"Hey pretty boy how about over here?" A young beast woman yelled to Neil from across the street. Neil immediately recognized this as a brothel, and as interested as he may have been he stuck on his current task. Swiftly turning around and heading in the opposite direction.
'A time and a place Neil, your time will come' He thought to himself as he continued his scouring of the city for useful shops. He was still only 22 and his libido wasn't dead. He found the trading hut with such ease so how could the other shops be this hard to find he asked himself as he finally found what resembled to be a material shop.
He swiftly went in, if only to offer him an escape from the outside that he was so lost in. The shop's size surprised him once he entered as there seemed to be multiple stores within one. There were a few things within the stores that interested him, one part being the grocery. In Neil's previous life, he had learned how to cook fairly well as he preferred to eat at home and not go out and buy food. This would be helpful for him in adventuring as being able to cook your meals could be extremely useful.
'I've been itching to make something actually good ever since I got here' He thought to himself. He then realized he still hadn't eaten anything ever since he got onto this world a day ago and felt the hunger in his stomach swiftly return. For the time being Neil would have to buy a sandwich from the grocer instead of making his meal.
After purchasing a sandwich for two quoms and scarfing it down he returned to shopping within the Archemia equivalent of Walmart. He purchased a few ingredients to make some meals later on along with a frying pan, for 10 quoms and felt like that would be enough for now. He went to the large material shop which held various ingredients for different crafts. This ranged from having raw metals for crafting weapons and equipment to having ingredients for poisons and potions.
Neil was still quite poor and unskilled at these crafts though so he left the store for the time being and returned to the hectic outside streets. It had now gotten fairly late and Neil would have to guess it was around 10:30 to 11:00.
Neil was happy with how his current voyages were going but knew there was a decent amount left before he was done. He decided now would be the best time to return to the pawn shop to see if there were any items worth buying within the filled store.
He opened the door to hear the familiar voice of the old man welcoming him again.
"Buying or selling?" It was the same question he had heard earlier as well.
"Buying" Neil responded.
"Ah, you again, this is a bit of a surprise, anything specific I can help you with?" It seemed the old man did indeed recognize Neil, which was nice to see. Even if it was partially due to his unique eyes, at least that was his best guess, as the man must've gotten numerous customers a day.
"Nope, I'm just gonna look around some" Neil responded to the man.
The man simply nodded his head and allowed Neil some quiet as he went back further into the area behind the counter.
'It's thieving time!' Neil thought to himself, not that he was gonna steal as that would make things difficult. Just that he was about to buy some things at a much lower price than their worth.
He started at the front left corner of the L-shaped store and from there worked his way around the shop. Making sure to analyze every trinket and bobble no matter how tiresome it got and even if it was listed at a price above what he had. He had to know which ones to watch out for and return to later.
After 10 or so minutes he had made a decent dent in the items he had to scan but had come up with nothing of interest to him. Furthermore, it seemed the man had now begun watching Neil as though he didn't trust him.
'These damn eyes' Neil thought coincidentally as he was using them to analyze yet another one of the many items in the store.
Nonetheless, Neil continued like this around the entire store, and in the end, he came across four items that interested him. Three of which he could purchase now.
He grabbed the three items he could afford and hid the fourth one in a back corner of the shop, hoping it would be able to avoid the gaze of any possible purchasers. After hiding the fourth item he walked up to the counter where the man stood staring at Neil with a slight grin.
"It seems you have a knack for finding things, though it does take you some time," The old man said to Neil, somewhat confusing him.
"What do you mean, I just picked what I liked." He responded to the old man, trying to play dumb.
'Well, even if that's all you did you've still got a good eye, how about we make a deal?" Asked the old man.
"Go on" Said Neil, now interested and pleasantly surprised by the way this conversation was going.
"I'll let you have all three of the items you brought up here, along with that fourth one you hid in the corner for free." Began the old man as he stated the first end of his deal.
At this point, Neil was thoroughly confused.
'How could the old man know about my skill and that fourth item' He thought. He quickly regained himself though, not wanting to miss this opportunity.
"And what do I have to do for you?" Asked Neil in a suspicious tone.
" All you have to do is pick up any items that interest you that you have no purpose for and give them to me, once you give me four items I'll consider our deal done" Answered the man.
Neil had to regain himself for a second as he never thought he'd be making such deals with the local trading hut owner. As he was thinking he heard the old man's voice again.
"If you're wondering why I'm offering you this deal it's because I believe your eyes, while different in appearance, are similar to my own. I would guess that you're able to appraise items in great detail, likely better than even I." Neil was surprised by the man's ability to deduce Neil's skill so well and was also impressed by the man's intelligence.
"I think I'll take you up on that deal, and hopefully we can have more deals like this in the future." Neil saw the potential to make a powerful ally in this situation and would do his best to seem appealing to the man in front of him. The man chuckled a little before speaking again.
"Yes young lad I think that would be nice, as I've gotten too old to properly adventure and explore, and you seem to be quite poor." The man's statement delighted Neil as he had made yet another companion in this world, even if they were just in a business transaction.
"What's your name?" Neil asked the old man, realizing he had yet to ask the question.
"Dokar," The old man said seeming a bit pleased to hear Neil ask.
"It was wonderful meeting you and I hope we can have beneficial transactions for both of us in the future." Neil now felt he had done a good job showing Dokar he was a more trustworthy person than his eyes may let on and went back to the corner of the store to pick up the fourth item he left.
He was impressed at Dokar's trust in Neil as he was giving him the rewards without a guarantee he'd be repaid. Neil guessed Dokar's eyes could look at the character of an individual among other things which is what caused him to trust Neil more than the average person.
He walked out of the hut with much more than he originally thought he have, and at no cost which made it even better. This was enough for Neil and he decided that it was time to go back to the inn where he'd equip the new items he had gotten as well as do a full investigation of the two bodies that were currently in his pouch, along with looking back at the books he had placed with it.
His interaction with Dokar made him realize the power and usefulness of his eyes, along with a greater focus placed on finding some way to level them up, though he had no clue how. Within the game, one upgraded their skills through using them but Neil felt that was too simple of a way to increase the level of his own, also he had just used the skill well over 100 times within the shop with no sign of an increase in its level.
For now, he would ignore this as he already had enough on his plate and it had now gotten late into the night, seemingly around midnight. Neil was able to quickly find his way back to the inn where he sat down with the four newly acquired items.
'It has been a very successful night indeed' Neil thought to himself as he stared at all of the things he had gotten and laid out on the desk in his room.
He was slightly worried about his pouch filling up at this point as he had put all of his cooking ingredients inside of it along with the things that had already been it, but even with that it still had around 20 spots remaining.
"Let's start equipping you, babies!!" He said speaking directly to the four pieces of equipment in front of him.