( Silverpine Village, The market )
After listening to Luke and how there was a shop in his beginner town that sold skill scrolls, Leo decided to explore the market of his own spawn village in case it offered similar services.
The price of skill scrolls in Luke's village was 10 gold coins for a ( Common ) ranked skill which made Leo wonder what the price would be for a skill like ( Mimic ) that was unique to the actor class?
He had already learnt the skill, but because he was in a hurry to Logout he never fully explored it as he still had no idea about what exactly it did apart from the system description that gave him a vague idea.
There was also the loot that he had gained by killing the wolves that he wished to sell for money and hence the market seemed to be the appropriate place to start.
The market street was located at pretty much the centre of the village and could easily be considered the heart of Silverpine.
It housed many shops mainly selling meat and other essentials, but there were other small shops as well offering services like selling clothes, utensils, weapons etc.
When he first arrived at the village, the environment was dark and it seemed to be late evening, however, it was much brighter now as the day seemed to have changed.
As a result, the village was a much more lively place in general and Leo could observe the world of Terra Nova in a much more detailed fashion to understand the mechanics of the game.
Since he understood now as to how important the game was and how it could potentially help him live a better life, Leo was now even more observant than when he first logged into the game as he tried to look at everything in the world from an objective eye.
The NPC in Terra Nova were ultra realistic as everyone of them had varied expressions on their faces with ever so smooth body movement.
As he observed a woman haggle over the price of meat with the local butcher, Leo observed how the woman's facial expressions turned from annoyed to angry to happy as she successfully saved 2 copper coins in her purchase price.
Such detail was impossible to achieve in Earthen games as while the full dive games on Earth had a realistic world experience, the NPC were usually expressionless and had a set line of coded behaviour that they followed, but Terra Nova Online was different.
Every NPC in this game seemed to have a personality of their own and displayed a range of emotions just like what a normal person would.
"I better treat them as real humans and forget the fact that they are NPC. They are way too real to be called in-game characters" Leo murmured to himself as he took a resolution to consider NPC as real people and not bots.
Eventually, he found a tailor shop that had the sign "We buy Wolf Leather" plastered over the entrance and entered it with the intention to sell.
*Dadingding*
The moment he opened the door a bell attached to the door handle rattled against the door informing the shop keeper that a customer had arrived.
"Oh lord Santina- A Virex operative?" The old tailor said in shock as he looked at Leo's mask and seemed to be taken aback by its appearance.
"I'm here to sell wolf skin" Leo said with a straight face and deep voice as he did not let the shopkeeper's surprise affect him and pretended as if this reaction was normal to him.
"Oh yes of course! You must be the gentleman who cleared the wolf problem in the mines…. Our village is much indebted to you" the old man said with a smile as Leo felt awkward listening to the praise.
"I'm terribly sorry for my previous reaction, we've had a slight history with a Virex operative, that's why everyone in this town is slightly afraid of that mask" the old man said as Leo felt intrigued about this old tale.
"I noticed that the village chief seemed reserved as well, can you tell me why is everyone so afraid of Virex Operatives?" Leo asked politely as the old man scratched his semi bald head.
"It's because of your nickname of course-, you're the mad dogs of the emperor who only move on his command.
Previously, about 5-7 years ago, the last time one of you came to this small village was to assassinate a fugitive who was living in this village for the past few years under the guise of being a merchant.
He was a smart fellow and had integrated himself well into our society, which is why his death came as a shock to us.
However, it's not the fault of your division, of course you were acting under orders.
It's just that the way your predecessor killed him was way too gruesome as his body was left purple from the poison that he used-
A truly terrifying affair" the old man explained as Leo suddenly understood why the village chief and everyone who saw his mask on the streets seemed to be so afraid of him.
Apparently, the Virex troops had quite a reputation in this village which made the people prejudiced against Leo from the start.
"Hmm it's okay, I understand…. Thankyou for sharing this story " Leo said as the shopkeeper immediately waved him off.
"Please, it's nothing much, you're our village's saviour, I'm sure the reputation of your corps will improve amongst the people once you leave" the old man said, but his expression betrayed the words he spoke.
There was already a rumour going around about how viciously Leo killed the wolves and how he was bloodsoaked and without a scratch when he walked out of the dungeon which only made the fear that the commoners held towards Virex Operatives grow even worse.
Nonetheless, those things had nothing to do with Leo who presented the shopkeeper with all the wolf pelts that he had gathered and offered them for sale.
Just like a shopkeeper would in the real world, the NPC in Terra Nova also took his time hand inspecting each layer as only after a good fifteen minutes did he finally offer a price.
"You have really done a good job collecting the wolf pelts, there is absolutely no damage in the removal process.
For pelts of this high quality, I can offer you 1 silver piece for the common ones and 25 silver pieces for the rare ones, bringing the total to 60 silver coins.
Is that acceptable?" He asked as Leo who had no idea about the market price of these goods simply nodded in affirmation and completed the trade.
[ System Notification:- You have sold 10x common grade wolf skin and 2x rare grade wolf skin for 60 silver coins! ]
A system notification notified him of the trade and his inventory automatically refreshed.
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/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the review target, thankyou for all your reviews! ///