Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Oh yeah, Klod. Do you know a place where I can dismantle monsters in town? I have a lot of ... snake I need to take care of. The old blacksmith once again got the chance to give Seth a puzzled look, just for a different reason.

"What level are you now, Seth?", he asked to make sure.

"13, why?"

"Then you should be able to do it. You should be able to dismantle monster corpses using the inventory, given you have enough space. Do you have something small with you? Then I can show you."

The next moment the over 4-meter-long corpse of a baby Titanoboa flopped on the shop′s floor.

"You know, I just won′t ask where you got this. For my own piece of mind."

The old man crouched down and touched the body. He whispered, "Loot all", and the skin of the snake vanished.

"Like this you can store all the crafting materials you know of. It′s a lot faster, but some of the material will be lost, compared to physically dismantling", he explained and took out the finished material and showed him, that it had turned into an evenly cut sheet of snake leather.

<Titanoboa Snake Leather, Crafting material. Common.

The flexible and sturdy skin of an infant Titanoboa. Very suitable for sturdy clothes and light armor.>

"Now you try!", the man encouraged Seth. He took out another snake and it easily worked for him, too! And a tanned piece of snake leather appeared in his inventory!

"If you have a lot of material to loot, I recommend this method. But when you ever come a across something truly rare, you should try to find a professional hunter to dismantle it. Even a small piece of skin could be worth its weight in gold in such cases.", this made Seth decide, to look for a professional hunter for the Juvenile. Although, it′s leather was not rare, it was uncommon and Seth would appreciate more material to grind his skills.

Running his hands along the smooth piece of leather Klod suddenly said, "Say, how much of this snake leather do you have? I can′t buy your weapons, but this snake leather seems quite good!"

Seth took a few minutes to clean out the two stacks of baby boas, now he had 2 stacks of snake leather and 2 stacks of naked snake bodies. Seth sold 50 snake leather to Klod and finally made his first otherworldly money. The blacksmith had paid him 2 gold, which meant the leather was roughly 4 silver per piece.

Simon had explained the rough worth of money to him. 3 Gold was enough for a commoner to live comfortably for a month. Seth did not doubt Klod′s price and happily left the blacksmith′s shop.

For your information, just one of the medium iron maces went for 2 gold already. Weapons made of steel were even more expensive. Of course, it was the quality that made the price.

This was all he had planned for the day, so he was free for now.

He thought about returning to the church and talk to Simon, but the town was really empty right now. It was a good chance to explore the fantasy setting and shops. The tailor was the first to pick his interest. Since he would soon travel to a different world, maybe he should try to adjust?

Seth entered the shop filled with a range of different clothes. The counter was manned by a bored looking elderly woman dozing off. The door hitting a bell startled her. Her chin slipped off the hand it was resting on and almost hit the counter.

He had been to 3 shops and all of them were run by elderly people. Were the jobs in these frontier villages like a retirement or something? Not that it affected him, he just felt curious. The lady caught her fall and straightened herself, trying to play off her little plunder.

"Hello! How may I help you?", she gave him a trained smile. Her voice was smooth and melodic despite her age. She gave a nice old granny-vibe. He had an easy time describing his situation to her, that he would travel to a province of the empire and he needed comfortable sturdy clothes for travel. She listened attentively.

"Ah, yes! We can help with that. If you may come over here so I can get your measurements..."

"Measurements? I′m leaving tomorrow-"

"No worries. I will just slightly adjust three sets of ready-made clothes for you. It won′t take long at all. You can pay when you come to pick them up."

"three? But I-"

" Yes, three! Don′t try to tell me one is enough. You can′t possibly plan to travel with just one set of clothing, do you?", she shot down his objections.

With this, she took him to the measurement boot in the back. Her movements when measuring him had been really experienced and fast. He doubted his earlier guess about retirement. Maybe they focused on the most experienced people? 15 minutes later he was already back on the streets. She had sent him off with a "Your clothes will be ready tomorrow morning. Make sure to pick them up before you leave!"

Back outside Seth was still a little puzzled about what happened. His stomach reminded him of his next sequence of actions. The meal yesterday showed him, that he did not need to fear the food of the other world. It seemed quite delicious, at least the high end. Let′s see how the restaurants would do!

Seth had to search a little, but found an eatery in the end. Compared to the rest of town, it was almost buzzing with business. He took this as a sign of quality.

It was very much like you would imagine a medieval tavern, but from movies. There was spacious room with many wooden tables for guests to sit on. It was around noon, and the bright sun light fell in through big windows onto the smooth, well-made furniture. The room looked clean and the air felt fresh. Seth had not expected it to be this enjoyable. He was able to order a full table of food and wine for just 5 silver. This was his subjective view; 5 silver was already pricey for the normal populace.

The food was simple, but tasted very good. Not as good as the meal he had yesterday, but definitely better than anything he had cooked for himself in the past weeks. Seth would not suffer, if food like this was a staple in the other world!

His belly was full, his needs fulfilled. Seth returned to the church. There was still the talk about the weapons and maybe the priest knew a hunter who could dismantle the snake for him.

On his way back, he came across the general store again. Hmm, maybe he could get rid of the 3 stacks of raw snake here? He would much rather have something preserved he could eat right away, instead of having to cook it. And he should get medical supplies! He would make sure to have at least first aid stuff in his inventory from now on!

"eh? if it isn′t the ori huma! How's ya been doing?", the shop keep greeted him. He seemed friendlier than last time. The man noticed his bewilderment. "I heard ya helped some fairies. Really nice little things. Never hurt anyone. It′s good you saved them."

"Oh, ok", Seth smiled. "Well, I wanted to ask, whether you would buy something like this.", and slapped one of the naked snake bodies on the counter. The clerk was baffled upon seeing a snake this big. He inspected the body for a while. " Do you have more of this? I′m willing to give you ....20 bronze for the meat and another 10 for the innards. Our apothecary should be able to use it for medicine."

The shop keep was stunned when Seth told him, he had several hundred, but he said not no. he explained why the meat of low-level beasts was not awfully expensive, so he did not mind stocking up on it. In the end Seth sold the normal snakes for 20, and the boas for 30 bronze each making about 80 silver in total. Obviously, the skins were the most precious parts of the snakes, but Seth did not say no to the meat money.

After their deal was done, Seth asked the shop keep for the location of the apothecary. He bet he could stock up on medicinal supplies there. Maybe they even had real health potions and mana potions. Something like that would have been really cool!

The apothecary was located a little off the main street. That was why Seth had not seen his shop before. It was a small building with a small shopwindow and Staff of Aesculapius on its sign.

The youngest shopkeeper he had met so far looked up, as Seth entered the pharmacy. The man was in his late twenties or early thirties and looked quite dapper.

"Hello, what can I do for you?", he asked in a friendly baritone.

Seth gave the pharmacy a once over. All kind of little potion bottles were stored in cabinets and the whole wall behind the man was filled with drawers.

"Oh yeah, I'm looking for medicinal supplies for travelling. Say, you don′t have health potions or something like that, right?", Seths eyes were fixed on the shelves with all kinds of colorful bottles.

The pharmacists squinted his eyes, but did not use <Observe> as far as Seth felt.

"Are you an ori huma maybe? To ask for something like health potions in a frontier village", he smiled. he explained, that health potions were a high-quality product that needed rare ingredients and a high skill level. Those were normally not available in these Starta villages. he offered Seth a first aid kit, which compromised things like bandages, rubbing alcohol and salves. It was all contained in a non-descriptive bag, that reduced the needed inventory space to one! The description of the bag was literally "First Aid kit".

He felt a lot calmer with this in his inventory.. Now, it was time to return to the church for.

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