Roman's commission job of level 5 boots was good, not great but good. And what he said was true too, there was only demand for level 5 or higher level items but no supply. Practically it was because, the current level 5 players were from guilds. Very few Indies had reached level 5.
The level up rate had slowed drastically after initial two days of launch of the game. It was not just in this village but in others too. Even in the villages where the dungeons had opened, level up speed was not high. Obviously, after the dungeons opened, the levels fell a lot faster as the lives were sacrificed to find the way to clear the dungeon. If thought in this way, other villages were lucky that they didn't have dungeons. But did the players think like that, no! The fall in level was only till the dungeons were conquered. Once done and the details shared the leveling speed would be rocket like.
The guilds were stockpiling good items, potions and miscellaneous items including single use scrolls. Artha too got few order lists from his tier 1 customers but he had not fulfilled much. He wanted to be lay low and sell items for long time (however long he could play the game). He still remembered how he was accosted in the inn. He might have died there if the other party wanted to. So, his sale items were basic and mundane.
Level 5 boots were not that. Clearly.
Should he risk it? Once the dungeons opened, the guilds would be in frenzy and most likely would swallow the boots. If he was a bit later, other indies would also be ready to pay premium to use such boots. But he would get name and fame among the rich and big money spenders. Would that be good? Or bad? Choices! Choices!
In the end greed won. Maybe it was Sela's message requesting him to accept it. Whatever the reason, Artha was shelling out credits to buy something. The money was paid from the eschrow account, so it could not be traced back to him from that side. Artha asked other side, the seller to open an escrow account and deposited credits there. There was no extras thrown in to reel in the customer again. That customer would become regular for Roman, not Artha. Artha will forever be remembered as big money spender. After all, he had indeed paid a premium price to own that pair of level 5 boots.
Roman, like a good samaritan he was, left after the transaction. Sela was left. Her problem was a bit different. There were not many archers in the village. Those who could pay well were in guilds and already had good bows. Others who might need necessarily didn't have enough coins to pay for it. Once the dungeons were open, the market for weapons and items would be flooding the market. But till that time, this would be a hot commodity. Such a volatile market, no wonder many lost their shirts. Sela, with her experience in various games knew she had to off load the bow soon. Artha was in quandary too.
His customers were from guilds who didn't need such bow. But this was a good bow. In the end, he purchased it and Sela didn't short change him. Artha nodded. Till however long he played, Sela would be his customer too.
This transaction showed the glaring lacunae in his sales deeds. His sales got him loads of credits but covered a small area. If something out of that zone was purchased, it would be difficult to sell. Changing hands many times by the time the product reached him or other seller meant that the product price would be jacked up a bit, which would not be fruitful for repeat business.
He sighed. He probably should cultivate a bunch of middlemen. Sela and Roman could be considered trial run. So he asked her directly.
"Sister, if I ask you to be middleman for me, would you be willing?"
Sela was gobsmacked. She had never been a middleman before though she had transacted with few. She had accidentally turned into one in this gam and here was the money maker who was asking her to do that exclusively.
Yes, becoming a middleman to any entity meant they would be linked. Even if she facilated item sale between two players without involving Artha, he would get a cut in the commission. But the good news was that she would be able to facilitate more sales as Artha might buy more products himself or sell them if she requested.
It was a good way to make money but it curtailed her freedom much. In return, she would earn more. Sela could only say she would think and answer back.
Artha too had to do some deep thinking. He was now a one man army. It would not matter if he stopped playing suddenly. But if he employed some, even with a loose contract, he could not give up on the game. He had asked Sela on impulse. But now, he had to think hard whether this step was good or not.
He decided the areas nearby. His gather skill was slowly becoming better, so he could collect more items in the same map. It made the tedious and repeated job somewhat adventurous.
Artha didn't have a single adventurous bone in his body. He was happy because difficult to gather objects were worth more and gave more XP to boot. Burdened with full bags, he walked back to village to dump his stuff in the first room.
The bad part was that items from living things could not stay out in open before losing their potency and potential. So they were kept in trader bags. It meant he had to buy better quality trader bags and upgrade them again to maximize the space. Lots of coins and XP gone.
Good news, trader bags took less place and they could stack too. This made the room just a bagage holding room rather than jumbled room with items placed all over.