"You didn't know? The descriptions are mostly standard." The old man stated sagely, then took the sword, looked at it closely and spoke again. "But some people receive special descriptions from the system. They can be mocking, detailed or even false!"
"…I'm probably one of those with the mocking descriptions. I always knew that the system hates me."
"That's far from the truth! Those who see different descriptions are considered system's favorites."
"Favorites… Yeah, right. Alright let's get back to business. How much do you want for this sword? And for those four second-level ones?" He pointed at the wooden bucket with a few swords and bats in it.
"Oh, so the system shows you the levels of items as well? And you said that it didn't like you!" Emmanuel said and gave him a serious look. "Just so you know, that's a very useful piece of information and it will come in handy times and times again. The price for a black sword is 400 coins, and for the second-level swords, as you called them - 50 coins each."
"Huh, to be honest, the one that I bought in Louvre costed me 100." Sergei smirked and pointed at the sword strapped to his back.
"Well, it's the Louvre." The old man shrugged. "Their leaders squeeze the life out of their own people… You trade with them as well?"
"Just a tiny bit. It's dangerous to make big deals with them."
"Good point well made!"
"Hm, a second-level bow? I didn't know that system gave ranged weapons as well?" Sergei inquired upon picking up a wooden bow. Such bows were made in Middle Ages.
"It does but rarely, that's why they are more expensive. That bow costs 300 coins."
"And the arrows for it?"
"Just read the description."
AN ALMOST SELF-MADE BOW, LEVEL 2.
PERFECTLY SUITED FOR THOSE WHO ARE AFRAID OF MEETING THE UNDEAD FACE TO FACE. HOWEVER, YOU, SCAREDY-CATS, NEED TO KNOW THAT ARCHERY IS A SCIENCE!
YOU CAN CREATE ONE ARROW USING ONE MANA POINT, SPEED OF CREATION DEPENDS ON THE POWER OF YOUR MAGIC.
WARNING TO ALL THOSE SMART-ASSES WHO THINK THEY CAN TAKE ORDINARY ARROWS AND START KILLING ZOMBIES - YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO! ONLY THOSE ZOMBIES THAT WERE KILLED WITH MANA ARROWS ARE COUNTED.
"I see. Even if a person is a professional archer they will only manage to kill about 10 zombies a day." Sergei summed up after reading the description.
"Yeah and if they're just decent ones - they'll manage only three-four. It's not an easy task to hit a moving zombie in the head, especially from a distance. But unlike bullets, the arrows are made of mana." Emmanuel explained.
"Well, you can get others to create the arrows and let the professionals do the shooting. Look how many of those you have." Sergei pointed at several dozens of buckets filled with arrows.
"Yes, but only those without special skills can do that, those who have them are quite proprietary about their mana."
"Do you have guns here?"
"We do, but they are all in use."
"That's a pity. What about vaccines?"
"Sorry, but they run out pretty fast. We barely got enough for ourselves." Sergei looked at his own bracelet and sighed. He had a few more of those, of course, but it was still not enough.
A VACCINE BRACELET, LEVEL 1.
THIS BRACELET CONTAINS SYRINGES WITH LEVEL 1 VACCINE. IF YOU ARE BITTEN BY A ZOMBIE, THE BRACELET WILL AUTOMATICALLY INJECT YOU WITH A VACCINE. ONE VACCINE FOR ONE BITE. DOES NOT PROTECT FROM ZOMBIES WITH INFECTION LEVEL 2 AND ABOVE.
REMAINING DOSES: 1/4
"Huh, level 2 protective gear? What kind of gloves are those?"
A MAGE'S GLOVE, LEVEL 1.
INCREASES THE POWER OF MAGICAL SKILLS BY TWO POINTS.
"Increases the power of magical skills?"
"Not a rare item, which cannot be said about magic users themselves. Those are 50 coins each."
"How much for a second level armor set?"
"Armor is sold less often than the weapons and it can be worn by ordinary people so it makes it pricier. 200 coins for each items of the set."
"That is expensive indeed… Do you have any first level sets?"
"No, they are all being worn by ordinary people in our camp who can't fight but are really useful."
"I see. Are there any female sets?"
"Hah, no, no. They adjust to wearer's parameters."
"Okay, then I'll buy one third-level sword, four second-level swords, a bow and two sets of second-level armor. Do the sets include helmets of any kind?"
"No, headwear and head protection drop only from the third-level zombies and probably from the fourth-level ones too, if they exist. That's 2500 coins. You can pay with food tomorrow."
"Okay, then I'll pick my purchase up tomorrow as well."
"Deal." Sergei shook hands with Emmanuel, then the guest was escorted to the manhole.
Upon returning to his haven, he saw all of his people working on the fields - old ones, young ones and even beautiful ladies. Sergei decided to get out of the way, so he returned to the real world and headed to the camp located in the office building.
After having walked the most part of the way through the sewers, Sergei climbed outside and barely escaped getting caught by two mutants, after that he almost got surrounded by the group of regular zombies… No matter how strong you are, if you are attacked by a couple of dozens of zombies they will overwhelm you with sheer numbers and tear you apart.
After barely getting out of that mess alive and killing a few zombies during his retreat, Sergei received 7 coins and 8 XP. The following route felt like a walk in the park in comparison and he soon arrived to the camp.
Since his last visit, the territory was cleaned and reinforced. New barricades appeared consisting of cars, buses and construction waste and judging by large-scale construction works, they did not intend to stop there.
(fr) "Halt! Who's there?" A sentry shouted.
(fr) "Let him through, he's the potatoes salesman." Another guard told him.
(fr) "It's him?"
(fr) "Yeah."
"Sir, please, follow me. Our Elder wants to see you." A man in a camouflage clothes ran to him and politely asked Sergei to follow him. Soon they entered the building and went up to the guarded room on the fifth floor. Inside was a big sofa, a table in the middle of the room with a map of the city on it and several chairs. There was also a small table near the window but instead of flowers or some other piece of decor, there was a gun on it and an almost empty bottle of cognac. On the sofa sat a man dressed in camouflage clothes and system boots.
"Good afternoon. I'm glad that you finally came, I almost started thinking that something bad has happened to you." Said the tough looking one-eyed man, with whom Sergei dealt last time. He stood up and shook Sergei's hand. "We examined your potatoes and were satisfied with the results! Here are your 200 coins. And we'd want to buy some more potatoes, much more!"
"I can give you a ton, if…"
"A ton? You can really arrange that?!" He interrupted Sergei mid speech from his excitement.
"Yes, but I have two conditions. First - I should not be followed. Second - I will choose a suitable place where I will transport the goods to without the prying eyes and then you can transport them from there to wherever you want. Me and my friends don't want our method of transportation to be known. I hope you understand."
"Of course. We all have our own trump cards that can ruin everything if they become known to our enemies." The man spoke with honesty.
"Good, then we have a deal."
"Deal! My name is Hubert, I used to work for a private military company. There are a lot of my fellow soldiers in this camp that's why everyone here calls me Elder. You can call me whatever you like."
"Alright. My name's Sergei. It's nice to meet you Elder Hubert." Sergei said awkwardly. He was used to being polite to elders, Hubert however was the type who was friendly to everyone, old and young.
"Ha-ha-ha, It's nice to meet you too. How about a little celebration?" Hubert pointed at the bottle of cognac.
"Unfortunately, I can't, I'm on medications." Sergei sighed sadly.
"Well that's a pity…" The old warrior sounded slightly disappointed. He probably just wanted a reason to drink with someone…
"Maybe some other time."
"It's a deal!"
Sergei left the camp and went to search for a safe place. He didn't find one, but he killed four more zombies and finally leveled up.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ACCUMULATED ENOUGH EXPERIENCE POINTS AND ATTAINED LEVEL 5. YOU RECEIVE 2 STAT POINTS AND 1 SKILL POINT.
"A skill point? I can upgrade my haven? Place one skill point into haven!"
UNIQUE SKILL "THE HAVEN" CANNOT BE UPGRADED.
"Then why the fuck would I need a skill point if I cannot even upgrade my skill?"
ACQUIRE OTHER SKILLS THAT CAN BE UPGRADED.
"Where the fuck am I gonna get other skills?!"
KILL ZOMBIES, RECEIVE REWARDS.
"Look who's feeling talkative today! Everyone says that zombies used to rain loot and skills before, but now people are lucky to even get a few coins!"
After a long cussing fit, Sergei placed his stat points into strength - because the stronger he was the easier it was to behead zombies. After wandering around a little bit, Sergei finally found a quiet place.
Upon returning to his haven he found all of his employees already diligently planting a new batch of potatoes. In five meters distance from them was a huge pile of fresh potatoes. Sergei sent a mental command and the potatoes were immediately teleported into the cellar - he now had 5,5 tons of potatoes!
"Boss is back!" Everyone cheered up upon witnessing the disappearance of the crops.
"No slacking off! As soon as you finish we are going to start building your houses. So do your best."
"Yes, Boss!" The process sped up significantly after receiving a good motivation and in about an hour everything was done. But they ended up putting much more effort than it was really necessary… That's why all of them were dirty and covered in sweat, but they still eagerly gathered around their Boss.
"I brought this piece of paper, so let's do a sketch first. Here we have our pond, here's our warehouse and here are my tent, laptop and solar panels." Sergei started sketching a map on the paper.
"Boss, isn't there any program in the store for designing residential areas or something like that?" Annette intervened.
Everything went dead silent.
"Give me a sec… Yes, there is! It costs 150 coins but we can afford it. Done, it's gonna start installing now… Fuck! I shouldn't have done that!"
"What is it, Boss?"
"The last time I installed a program - it took all day!"
"Oh no! Cancel it, quickly!"
THE SYSTEM STARTED UPDATING. WE APOLOGIZE, BUT YOU CANNOT USE APPS DURING THE UPDATE.
CURRENT PROGRESS 0%
"Too late…" Boss muttered and sighed in defeat while the laptop started making loud noises as if it was about to explode.
(fr) "Annette! You should've kept your advices to yourself!" Sylvie exclaimed, pissed. She dreamt about sleeping in her own comfy bed…
(fr) "I'm sorry, I didn't know…"
"Alright, let's get the sketching done first, and then tomorrow we can start settling in our new houses."
"Okay, Boss…" Sylvie said sadly.
Everyone left in frustrated feelings and the rest of the day went in a gloomy mood. They didn't really have much to do as well, Boss moved all of the crops to the cellar and their only job was to dig up potatoes once in three days, the rest of the time they were completely free.
————————————————————————
"I have two major deals planned tomorrow, of one and three tons." Sergei said upon reaching the depressed crowd gathered near the campfire. "It's twenty thousand coins. I think we can afford to spend more. We can, for example, build public toilets and bathrooms…"
"Boss! You are the best!" Orianne suddenly hugged her Boss and kissed him on both cheeks from her happiness. She had a really strong grip… Other girls were equally as happy.
"For that we need an electric boiler and a power source. We have no coal, so we only have an access to solar energy. We need to add those facilities to our plans of development."
"Okey, Boss! We'll stay up all night if we have to, but we'll finish the plan! Right, girls?" Anne got excited and passed her excitement to other girls.
"What for? The update will take some time - according to its speed it will finish only somewhere around late afternoon. We'll work a little before going to bed and a little in the morning." Natasha objected calmly. She was after all the oldest between the girls, and the wisest.
"And I'll help Boss to pick the right equipment in the store. I'm quite good at it." Louis added, he was dreaming about the hot bath as well.
"Alright." Sergei nodded in agreement and went to lie in his hammock with a good book.
The evening was noisy: the girls got carried away so much so that they stuck with the planning till the middle of the night which in turn prevented the male part of the residents from sleeping as well…
The morning started wonderfully. By some miracle, Alice did a great job waking her Boss this time. Usually she wasn't that great, but now… it felt like she became a whole other person or maybe just received a proper training…
CURRENT PROGRESS 84%
"I think it's gonna finish somewhere around the late afternoon." Sergei threw a look at the monitor and went to do his morning hygiene before joining everyone for breakfast.
At 10 a.m. he teleported a ton of potatoes to an empty apartment near the camp in the office building and went to finish the deal.
"Sergei, my dear friend, you are early!" Hubert greeted Sergei with a bright smile as he was on the approach to the camp.
"Here."
"What is this! Address and keys?"
"There is one ton of potatoes in that apartment."
"Truly? And you managed that in one day? You are a true blessing for our camp!" The old warrior said with a wide smile. He can achieve so much with that food! "Can you deliver the same amount or maybe even more in a three days time?"
"Three days? Hm, I think I can bring you three tons."
"Three? How wonderful!" Hubert started sweating from happiness and excitement, his face was literally tomato red. And probably his blood pressure just rose…
"Why do you even need that much? You don't have that many people."
"Huh, I'm not gonna lie, I intend to recruit some people from smaller camps with your foodstuff."
"I see. Well, I think they'll be better off with you than in the Louvre." The salesman nodded approvingly.
"Don't even mention that accursed place, they treat people worse than livestock!"
"Yeah, I know. Been there…"
"Here are your 5000 coins, but I also wanted to ask - what else would consider as payment? And what other crops can you produce?"
"We'll, I can produce almost anything. Potatoes are easier to store and to transport that's why we mostly sell only them." It was a pure bluff. Sergei only had some cabbage seeds and that was all. He never really looked if there are other crops available in the store…
"Do you have the grain? Or wheat in particular?" The old warrior asked hopefully.
"I can answer your question only after our next deal. But why wheat?"
"We'll… The beer is brewed with wheat… Alcohol has become a rare commodity and too many people are stressed." Hubert answered honestly.
People accumulated too much stress in the apocalypse, and it could be relived only with alcohol or sex. But because the alcohol was becoming increasingly scarce, poor women had to pay the price.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do."
"I will really appreciate that!"
Sergei left the camp and headed to the sewers while killing all the lone zombies on his way and almost got caught by the mutant… again…
"Beer, huh? Not a bad idea, I wonder if there are any experts in the Louvre or the Basilica…?" The man mumbled while making his way through the sewers.
"What, you don't agree with me?" He asked looking at the huge rat that was eyeing him with interest. But of course he received no answer.
Upon reaching "a quiet spot", he teleported three tons of potatoes and headed to the Basilica. When he exited the sewers he was met by the guards who immediately reported of his arrival through their radio. Emmanuel arrived soon after.
"You came! Good, good - have potatoes been delivered yet?"
"Yes, I left them at our usual place, you may send your people to retrieve them."
"Excellent!" The old man exclaimed with a wide smile.
"I wanted to ask, what other crops are you interested in?"
"You can produce something other than potatoes??? Damn it, why didn't I think of that! Yes! Corn! We'd only ever buy corn if it was possible, although - no, maybe fifty-fifty… No - better twenty percent of potatoes and eighty percent of corn!"
"…You like corn that much?"
"Ha! No, of course not. We have an equipment and someone who knows how to produce bioethanol."
"Woah, you shared such valuable data so easily."
"We have long-term trade partnership. Who knows, maybe you'll become interested in our product and start selling it to others?"
"I hadn't thought of that, but it's a really good deal! Bioethanol is a fuel, right?"
"Exactly! It's not the best, of course, but it's better than nothing. We can't refuel the cars with coal."
"…I think I can supply you with corn, but I'm not sure when I will be able to get my hands on it. I will inform you as soon as I get it. When will you need the next batch of potatoes?"
"It's hard to tell - what we bought already should be enough for a while. We need some time to figure out how to store what we already have. We will most probably have to expand."
"Okay, then I'll contact you when I could get my hands on some corn. Now, let me get the equipment I bought from you."
"Yes, yes. Come."
Sergei dressed up in black leather set of system armor. It included boots, gloves, pants and a jacket. Boots gave him +4 to strength, gloves +4 to dexterity, pants +4 to durability and the jacket +4 to stamina.
LEVEL: 5
EXP: 3/80
STAT POINTS: 0
STAMINA POINTS (SP): 10/17
MAGIC POINTS (MP): 10/10
STATS:
STRENGTH: 20
DEXTERITY: 18
STAMINA: 17
DURABILITY: 17
MAGIC: 10
SKILLS:
HAVEN
Sergei smiled widely after looking at his stats.
"Here are your coins as well. The equipment that you bought costed two and a half thousand coins and here are twelve thousand five hundred coins." Emmanuel passed him a huge bag of coins.
"It's heavy!"
"Imagine what it's like for me as an elderly man!"
"Sorry, didn't think about that."
"It's okay. How about a little celebration?" The old drunkard asked with a smile.
"I can't - I'm on medication." Sergei answered sadly - he wanted to drink so bad! "By the way, have you found the medicine that asked for?"
"Right, I almost forgot. Yes we found it, hold on a sec." Emmanuel left and returned in a few minutes. "Unfortunately we only have three phials."
"How much do I owe you?"
"Consider it my gift." Said the old man. At first he wanted to overcharge him, but it seemed no longer relevant, and they only had three phials anyway…
"I appreciate that. You can count on me if you ever need anything." Said the grateful salesman after taking the phials.
"In that case, I will contact you if we ever end up needing something aside from corn."
"Deal."
Sergei shook Emmanuel's hand, packed his equipment and left the Basilica.