《Interdimensional profiteering》 The Stores Doors Graduation was a bit of a chore; I mean sure it¡¯s great to celebrate your achievement of knowing all there is to know about your chosen subject (mine being business administration) but being made to sit on old uncomfortable wooden chairs which are probably older than me gets a bit tedious. Even more so when every. Single. Department of the University is allowed to have their own little speech and well wishes for their students. That and while the teachers may be all cheerful smiles the looming debt that I have to pay back for a good part of my life might have soured the mood a bit. What can I say I¡¯m a bit impatient when it comes to these things and meaningless rituals never really did sit well with me, being handed my diploma and kicked out into the wonderful world of employment would have been far more palatable than this tripe. I¡¯m not bitter you¡¯re bitter¡­. Alright, I guess I am a bit bitter but for good reason and while this drawn-out excuse of a graduation enters its 3rd gruelling hour, I shall regale you of the true issue that I find myself in voices in my head (Christ I should have just feigned sickness or something). For a little context, my family isn¡¯t exactly poor, far from it actually they own a large chain of stores called Calladar. What never heard of em, wouldn¡¯t be surprised as we don¡¯t really cater to the wider public, were more of an in-between store i.e., we are where restaurants, theme parks and other places that sell things but need to get their stock from somewhere first. But that¡¯s not important, what is important is that I was in line to take over one of our stores and help run it (hence my major). However, a few days just before graduation I get a very special email came to me from my father who so graciously informed me that no I won¡¯t be taking over that part of the family business. I mean common pops I wasn¡¯t gonna lounge around and be lazy (at least not most of the time), but no his word is final, and I¡¯ve been told I was going to attempt to build up a new store from the ground up. Now this news within itself wasn¡¯t what caused me any grief, I mean common this is what I¡¯ve been studying for the entire time, no my true issue lay with the location and what store I was supposed to run. NEW MEXICO was the state I would have to run this store in, a far cry from the cool climate of New York already but to add to my suffering this store is on the side of a disused road out in the desert. Oh, but my plight does not end there, no siree, instead I have to take over the shop from my old uncle who recently passed away. Now you might be asking what might be wrong with this old shop my late uncle had, well strap on in because this one¡äs a doozy. Ya see my uncle was a kind fellow, very kind probably the only person within my family who I was actually pretty close with, but he had his quirks. While my dad went and started up his business in the big apple his brother decided to go and open up a roadside store on (what was then) a busy road. Profits were great for the old man until they weren¡¯t, a new road was built which took away most traffic (and along with it his clientele) practically overnight. This seemed to have caused something to snap within him as he seemingly started to convert all of his remaining money into gold and buy up things that would be more at home in a survivalist bunker than a roadside shop. Along with that, he seemed to make a shit ton of money while still not having anyone visit his shop so naturally people began assuming he was in bed with local criminals. This sort of made him the black sheep of the family with most if not everyone staying away so as to not be associated with him. AND NOW I HAVE TO SOMEHOW RUN THAT Well, everyone in the family except for me as I would constantly be sitting on his lap as a child listening to his fun little fantasy stories about a magical world. That was until those rumours of him being part of some gang front or something barred him from coming to any family reunions and had me not being banned from seeing him as ¡°he might be a negative influence¡±. Yeah sure dad he was the bad influence while you were locked in your study enjoying more than the recommended amount of whiskey and malt liquor really was the best role model. Oh and not to mention mom being- ¡°Are they still not done yet¡± I heard from my right in a hushed whisper and being brought out of my mental recollection of family relations. ¡°Well, you know how they are Alex, like the sound of their own voices and whatnot¡± replaying in a similar low tone so as to not arise the ire of any of the staff. ¡°But we¡äve been here for hours what more can they talk about; I mean surely they would run out of things to say about now¡± bemoaned my friend. Oh, poor Alex a great but usually awkward guy never really did do great with social situations preferring usually to be part of the background or locked up in the university''s lab concocting God knows what behind closed doors. But when even he can no longer deal with being part of the crowd and speak up something must have gone terribly wrong for that to even be considered. ¡°Hey, you still being exiled down south to deal with your uncles, what was it¡­ farm?¡± Alex began to initiate small talk a rarity within its own right but not an unwelcome one. ¡°Yea and for the last time, it¡¯s a store, not a farm I mean how the hell are you supposed to be growing anything in a desert, and here I thought you were the smart one¡± I replied with playful banter. ¡°What never heard of a cactus farm, they sure do exist¡±. ¡°Yea well whatever, it¡¯s a store and while exile might be what it looks like it¡¯s more of my father attempting to make me distance myself from his brother¡±. ¡°Why that¡± ¡°Father thinks he¡¯s a wacko, and before you ask it¡¯s a loooong story one that even here I don¡¯t think I''ve got enough time to explain¡±. As if on cue the dean finally takes the stage after the last speech from the art department wishing us all well and bringing an end to the torture that was graduation. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. After getting up and waiting for any sort of feeling to return to my legs I wished Alex well in the years to come and began on my way to where my father was waiting for me. ¡°Mark my boy,¡± he says as his grin is hidden beneath his brown walrus moustache with arms outstretched. ¡° That sure was a long graduation ceremony, hopefully, it didn¡¯t tire you out too much you have a flight to catch¡± seemingly spotting my unamused reaction or possibly attempting to reassure me he continues ¡°look I know it¡¯s a bit sudden and all but the preparations for the shop are on a tight schedule and I wouldn¡¯t want you to lose out on the ability to gain some first-hand experience when it comes to running a store.¡± Sure, dad, that¡¯s why you¡äre sending me to the other side of the country, to gain experience and not make me come crawling back home when I inevitably fail. ¡°I know dad¡± I responded with a sigh. Before I could get another word in my father once again spoke ¡°did you at least make sure to say goodbye to all of your friends, you do know that it''s important to make good long-lasting relationships which can help later on in life¡±. ¡°Yup all good had a small get-together the day before¡± and when I said small, I mean small. Look I know I was talking about how bad Alex was with social interactions, but I do have to admit I may not be that great either, still a great deal better than Alex but not really by a long shot. I can easily make friends in the way of people that I may hang out with time from to time but no deeper than that, what can I say I¡¯m a private person. The ride to the airport was uneventful with only small talk between my father and I, same with my flight unless you count the cramped space and terrible sandwiches, they give you; oh and I can''t forget the best tunes of ¡°baby crying on an aeroplane¡± being played all flight long. After being picked up by a driver who communicated solely in grunts with the odd word being said here and there, that meant another long and boring car ride, but since this is New Mexico it''s also incredibly hot. Once we finally arrived at the ass end of now where with the closest town Carisbad being hours¡¯ drive away from here I could finally behold my new store''s majesty. Its cream sandstone bricks with dark orange ones outlining its corners, its 2 stories, its¡­ a piece of shit with no windows, a sign with most of its letters missing and an out-of-place metal grey double door. This place is going to take a hell of a lot of work, and I am not looking forward to it. I bid my grunting chaperone goodbye and watched as his car drove down the sand-covered road. ¡°*sigh* well better get started with finding out what¡äs wrong with the place¡­ excluding the obvious¡±. I turned around and began to make my way towards the front door, which wouldn¡¯t open. ¡°Oh, right locked,¡± I said to myself and went fishing for an envelope the driver had given to me just before he left. Opening it I found a letter and a set of keys. Reading the letter revealed it to have come from my dad. Dear Mark I hope your trip wasn¡¯t too taxing on you as you will be soon responsible for managing this wonderful little store on your own. While the condition of the building may seem run down at first, there is nothing to worry about as I had taken the liberty to send someone to check up on the condition of the building and it has been approved for use in a commercial setting. As an added bonus I have given you an assortment of goods to sell to start out with that should arrive a day after you have arrived, however, restocking your inventory will be on you. Within this envelope, you have no doubt also found a bundle of keys which as you may have guessed belong to the shop. All the keys are there except for one which is the front door key but I am sure you can figure out that issue on your own, I know it¡¯s a bit of a bother but don¡¯t let such small hiccups slow you down or you will never be able to become a proper businessman. Signed Your loving father Well, this is off to a great start I don¡¯t even have the keys to the front door to my own place. Oh, did I forget to mention this, the reason this store has 2 stories is not for added floor space (not mostly at least) but because some of this building is dedicated to living space. Guess who¡¯s the lucky guy who gets to be living inside said space, me¡­ ¡°Fuck, me¡± I whispered in exasperation. ¡°Quit appreciating the ground and get a move on¡± as my late uncle said when he would take me hiking with him and then taking liberal breaks. So, getting a move on is exactly what I¡¯m going to do as the sun is currently cooking the top of my head. With a newfound resolve of wanting to see what I have to work with and more importantly find refuge from the sun''s deadly rays I marched up to the front door and then marched to a similar metal grey door around the back of the building after I realised it was still locked. Thankfully this time one of the keys worked and I wouldn¡¯t be stuck outside for much longer, opening the door and flicking the light switch I was greeted with a storage room seemingly being a 10m by 5m room. What surprised me the most however was how good it look, the floor was made out of smooth concrete, and the metal storage shelves that adorned the walls as well as sitting in the middle of the room were in mint condition it seemed with only a light coating of dust. Thankful that all I would need to do was dust off some storage shelves I then made my way to a double door hoping that the floor space was just as good of a condition as the storage room was. And hallelujah were my prayers answered as once I flicked another light switch it revealed that other than a similar amount of dust that coated everything it looked wonderful¡­ It looked good¡­ Look I don¡¯t know much about interior decorating, but it looked damn well better than its exterior that¡¯s for sure. Though before I go about inspecting the store properly, I want to figure out what¡äs wrong with the front door. Other than me not having a key to it I want to know if there are any other issues, I need to be made aware of, but most importantly I was really hoping that I could at least open it up from the inside. Once I got up close to the pair of metal doors, I really had to wonder why these uninviting things were put in place instead of, I dunno glass doors which would allow people to see what a store could provide, or better yet why there weren¡¯t any windows, to begin with. ¡°Just what was my uncle thinking,¡± I said aloud trying to contemplate what use this could have to a¡­ would box store be a fitting enough name? Looking at the door frame revealed that the doors were held in by hinges that didn¡¯t seem to have any visible issues which was good but also had 4 pairs of bolts for each door holding them in place. The two on top were simple latch types which were not too hard to open, the ones on the ground seemed to be similar to hooks which swung up once pressed on. After confirming that everything about the doors (except my lack of keys) was in order I placed my hand on the doors handles and swung them open. What greeted me was not the god ol¡äheat blaring sun, nor the large flat sandy desert, no instead I was greeted with a much different sight. What I saw first was a lone dirt road in a grassy field with just beyond that a large forest of great green leaves similar to the ones I had seen when I visited a national park going hunting with my uncle. But as wonderful as this sight may have been to a usual hiker or hunter, I believe they too would be quite surprised to find such things IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING CHIHUAHUAN DESERT. Chapter 2 Staring wide-eyed at the horizon, I was wondering a number of things, am I high, did I get heat stroke, have I gone mad, and so on and so forth. There I stood until a bug decided that ramming into my eye was the best course of action for its survival and firmly cemented that yes what I am seeing is in fact reality. After waving away the suicidal little shit I grabbed both doors and slammed them shut and engaged all the bolts on the doors. ¡°Alight Mark calm down and think about this rationally¡­ How the hell do I think about this rationally even in the first place¡± I pondered attempting to not panic at what I had just seen, then it hit me ¡°am I still even in America¡±. Quickly I ran back to the storage room and practically leapt out the back door not knowing what I would find. Thankfully instead of seeing a similar sight as the one found at the front doors, the familiar warmth of the sun as well as the sights of sand cacti were what greeted him. ¡°Oh thank fuck¡±. That at least gave me a measure of comfort knowing I hadn¡¯t been whisked away in an old store to another world like in those Japanese stories that are so popular nowadays. No, instead it seems to me I¡¯m in more of a Narnia situation of portals, or at least I think so, surprise I¡¯m an expert on running stores not figuring out portal travel works. Putting the sudden revelation that my new store seems to have more than meets the eye I was determined to figure out what other bullshit might be hiding in here. Walking back into the storage room I inspected the shelves a bit more closely wondering if they had some sort of otherworldly properties, but simply looking at them only told me that they were bog standard shelves for storing product. Next, I made my way to the storefront and looked around, all in all, it looked like a regular small store. On the left of the entrance (situated at the corner of the building) were two counters with poles on their corners on which were numbers the closest counter being marked with a 1 and the furthest being marked with a 2. On the right of the store is where things began to stop making sense almost immediately as there seemed to be a¡­ device of some sort. It looked awfully similar to an industrial bread-slicing machine my dad once showed me when he took me on a tour of one of our stores. Looking at it closer revealed that the only thing it had in common with one of those bread slicers was its general shape as looking down the large input section of the contraption only revealed a black void, even with the lights in the store shining down from above. Leaving whatever the hell that thing is aside and how unnerving its ability to obfuscate its inner workings through unnatural darkness to the side and refocusing my attention to the rest of the store revealed that it was quite kitted out. The store had 5 ails with 3 long wooden shelves in the middle, the entrance was denoted by one of those one-way shiny metal fence doors all stores have. The shelves on the right wall of the store were of two types, the first was made out of green crates which seemed to be for fruit and veggies while the second was made with wooden crates for things such as bread. The middle and left corner shelves were simple dark wooden shelves with no speciality attributed to them. In the left corner was a staircase which led to the 2nd floor and right next to said staircase was a freezer with shelves for frozen goods. Finally close to the 2nd counter was a place with a couple of wooden pallets and a larger shelf meant for drinks. All in all looks like a pretty bog-standard store, which doesn¡¯t make much sense since a gas station would have been a better pick, damit uncle what are ya leaving me with here and how in the hell did you even manage to get people through the front door. Actually, that¡¯s a good question how did ol¡äuncle Robert even get people through the door when said door leads to God knows where. Something to think about later I suppose, I still have to check out the second floor. So, I trudged on up the flight of stairs feeling more tired the more I think about anything related to this store and flicked the 2nd story light switch revealing it to be not as populated with things as floor 1 was. The floor had a couple of circular clothing racks and the door leading to the little apartment I will be stuck in; all I can hope for is that I have a stable enough internet connection out here. Speaking of living space, I guess that¡¯s the last spot to check for any bullshit magical items that could burn this place down in my sleep because I pissed standing up or something. Opening the door of my new home had me enter the living room which already had a couple of my things brought in ahead of time courtesy of my dad. The kitchen was only separated from the living room by a counter and some white tiles which denoted where the living room ended, and the kitchen began. Directly in front of the entrance was a door leading to a bedroom with a small closet and to the right lay a bathroom with a bathtub, toilet, and wash basin. Feeling content that there were no spectres or ghouls waiting to jump out at me I ended my house tour and¡­ ¡°shit¡± I had forgotten to get my bags out of the quiet man¡¯s car when he brought me here. Thankfully I still had his number saved on my phone (also courtesy of my dad), which allowed me to contact him and see If he couldn¡¯t return my things. Dialling the number on my phone I waited for him to pick up and thankfully he did with another expressive and detailed response. ¡°hrmm?¡± The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Hi yes, it¡¯s Mark, the guy you dropped off today I was wondering if you were possibly still in the area¡±. ¡°hmm¡± I think that¡¯s a, yes? ¡°Great because I seemed to have forgotten my bags in your car, could you come back so I can unload them?¡± Surprisingly this time he actually spoke words rather than communicating in grunts. ¡°I busy, send you my son, he good driver, he deliver¡±. ¡°That sounds great, and uh sorry for forgetting my things in the car¡±. ¡°No problem, my son he come by soon¡±. ¡°Alright thanks¡± Ending the phone call I went back to looking at what I already had in my little apartment as waiting outside in the mid-day sun would have been hell. The bedroom had a twin-sized bed with coverings thankfully included, the closet was small but empty of anything of note, the bathroom was equally bare with only a towel on a towel rack a sink a toilet and a bathtub. The living room was truly empty as all it had was 1 chair and one regular-sized table which I could probably put my computer setup on. Opening all the kitchen doors in my hunt for magical bullshit revealed them all to be empty except for the fridge which had a bottle of milk in it¡­ Not opening that shit up, who knows how long that¡¯s been in there, the label and everything seemed to have been rubbed off with time suggesting that it may have been a minute or two, or four, or more. However, I did not have time for any pondering the age of label-less milk, I had to make a list of all the things I would need to run this place even if no one will buy things here I still live to hear meaning I have to figure out the logistics of this being my home for the foreseeable future. So, I sat down on the only chair I had and placed my phone on my only table and opened up the notes application on my phone and began writing. Issue 1: product delivery, I am getting one delivery as a freebie from my father tomorrow but after that, I have to figure out how and from where I am going to get more. Solving issue 1: the quiet man said something about his son being a driver maybe I could hire him for some deliveries, and I will have to look if there are any wholesalers in Carisbad. Issue 2: safe product delivery, if I''m going to be selling food I need the driver to have an appropriate truck for all of my product because this heat is not going to be kind to it. Solving issue 2: looking up trucking rental services or a popper logistics company if the quiet guy¡¯s dad isn¡¯t up to it (though he might be cheaper) Issue 3: waste removal, I don¡¯t think a garbage truck is going to make any rounds to my neck of the woods any time soon and I don¡¯t think Solving Issue 3: I¡¯m going to need to hire a waste management company since food delivery trucks sure won¡¯t take garbage bags, which will once again be very costly for me unless I can get that one guy that I¡¯m really hoping is a good driver to ferry my trash away. Issue 4: those fucking doors, so my doors lead to another place I¡¯m gonna need to find out where they lead to since it¡¯s sure as shit not out of the front of this building. Solving issue 4: to find out where it leads to exactly since typing dirt road, a field of grass, and thick forest into a search engine won¡¯t be giving me any good results. Issue 5: customers how? So, since my doors lead to god knows where how am I going to get people through my doors or more importantly even turn a profit Solving issue 5: fucked if I know. Costs, costs and yet even more costs what in the hell am I even going to run this place, and the only way I¡¯m going to be able to return to my dad is if I have fully ¡°shaken off all of uncle Robert¡¯s silly influence¡±. However, before I could depress myself even further about the hopeless nature of my situation a loud banging sound came from downstairs. ¡°Ah, that must be the guy delivering my forgotten bags¡±. So I made my way down preoccupied with ideas (or attempting to form them) to hopefully solve my current predicament. Then I stopped and realized that the knocking was coming from the front door, ya know the doors that don¡¯t lead to New Mexico but to who knows where. A sense of fear and curiosity began to fill me about if I should open the doors or not and what could be banging on the outside of that door maybe it¡¯s a cop wondering what I¡¯m doing operating without a valid licence in their country, maybe it¡¯s a farmer angry that my new teleporting doors have squashed his harvest. Finally, however, curiosity won out against fear, and I opened one of the two doors revealing¡­ nothing. It was as anticlimactic as it was puzzling as I could still hear the banging on the other door but couldn¡¯t see anyone or anything that could do such a noise, could it be that the only times these doors act as portals is when they are open? An idea to ponder later as the banging got a bit louder as they were trying to get my attention it seems, so I closed the front door again and entered out the back to see a portly Latino man waiting with his truck at the front of my store. ¡°Are you Mark?¡± he asked with a bit of an accent ¡°Yup that would be me, sorry about making you wait the front door is busted¡± I replied. ¡°No worries, names Carlos your bags are in the back,¡± he said shaking my hand while leading me to the back of his truck¡äs trunk and opening it revealing my bags. After unloading everything and depositing it all in the storeroom I turned back and asked him a question ¡°Hey, Carlos are you by any chance a delivery driver?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± he replied, ¡°or more so I was I am between jobs right now since the last place I was doing deliveries for shut down¡±. Oh, that¡¯s perfect I thought as this would allow me to at least have some sort of logistics option for me. ¡°I actually need a guy that can transport some things around I could give you a call once I¡¯m set up¡±. ¡°Sure, let me give you my number¡± he replied and we said our farewells Getting back in through the storage room I began to move my bags up into my new home until I heard another set of banging on the front door. Before I could curse myself out for absentmindedly opening the front door again when it doesn¡¯t lead to where I think it will I was met with quite a sight. ¡°Hey Carlos, is there something you nee-¡° I stopped myself when I opened the door and was greeted with the sight of a short brown bearded man in what could only be described as renaissance fair clothing. ¡°uuuuuuh¡± was the only thing I could get out before the little man asked. ¡°Are you an elf?¡± Chapter 3 ¡°I do hope you don¡¯t mind me asking¡± the little man continued ¡°but you don¡¯t look like an elf I must say but an elf is the closest-, oh where are my manners my name is Hitchklop and I am a peddler and was wondering if you would be so kind as to shelter me for the night as it gets dreadfully cold out here¡± My continued confused staring was seemingly interpreted as disapproval as he quickly followed with ¡°I can of course pay for any logging, as I am not without coin my good sir¡±. That seemed to give me enough time to snap out of it and properly respond. ¡°I uh¡­ no this¡­ this is a shop¡±. ¡°oh uh a thousand apologies then, I hope you don¡¯t mind me asking what wares you provide as the opportunity of finding new wares to peddle always is exciting¡± ¡°uh, foodstuffs and other stuff¡± I replied unsure of what I was even saying. ¡°ah so a general store of sorts, may I peruse your wares perhaps?¡± ¡°Oh uh n-no I-I am still setting things up and haven¡¯t gotten my first shipment yet¡± I had failed to mention it until now but the man stunk to high heaven like piss and I didn¡¯t want him anywhere near my store, it¡äs got enough issues as is. After those stuttered words left my mouth, an awkward silence permeated the conversation until the shot little man clapped his hands saying. ¡°Well, I see you are busy I shan¡¯t keep you any longer then if you are finally set up to open your shop do please find me in the town, farewell shopkeeper¡± hefted his backpack (with a bunch of things I did not recognize) onto his back and trudged down the road all the while all I could do was stare. Slowly closing the door I began to contemplate what had just happened, obviously, my front door still led to another place, I previously believed that it may have just been a different country on earth at least. After that exchange, I am, however, that small hope that there may be at least a semblance of mundanity to these doors has been well and truly squashed. Though the man did speak English perfectly if a bit old-fashioned there was something telling me in my gut that this man was not human. Before my head could explode with what ifs and what dos I decided that was a problem for future Mark as I suddenly found myself incredibly exhausted from not only the long flight but also now this. So I picked up my remaining things made my way to my little apartment and collapsed onto my bed, hoping that this entire day may have just been an incredibly vivid dream. Once I woke up the next morning to find myself in the same room that I had gone to sleep in I groaned dreading the future to come. The thought that sitting in bed wouldn¡¯t change anything and my growling stomach certainly convinced me to get up and at least face the day with something in my belly. Cleaning myself and getting dressed in a new pair of clothes I waltzed into my kitchen opened my fridge and cursed once I realized, oh yea all I have is that ancient bottle of milk. But not all was lost for me as today is the day I get my first shipment of stuff to sell¡­ right I have to sell it somehow. At that very moment, a hair-brained idea flew into my mind. ¡°Maybe I could sell my things to the people from where my portal doors lead¡±. When I say this idea was hair-brained I mean that it was barely formed, potentially risky and begging to become my only viable plan. So sitting at my only table of mine and tapping away on the computer I had spent the morning setting up to distract me from a breakfastless morning and began to put some more thought into my worryingly only plan. The short renaissance fair peddler mentioned a town close by, but I didn¡¯t see any type of civilization when I poked my head out. Oh god, this means I have to mount an expedition to the other side and somehow sell things to the locals there¡­ do I really not have anything else, ANYTHING? But no I did not have anything else to go on as no one wanted to come here for their shopping and even if they did I couldn¡¯t even let them in the front doors because of that magical bullshit, so fantasy first contact it was. I needed to stop getting distracted already and come up with a plan and- *ring ring* Destroying my train of thought, my phone began to ring with a number I did not recognize. Answering the phone revealed that it was time to get the first shipment allotted to me by my father. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.¡°hey¡± came a gruff voice from the phone¡¯s speakers ¡°you mark?¡± ¡°yea¡± ¡°Well, where are you we¡¯ve been waiting for you and bagging on the front door for about 10 minutes¡± ¡°Sorry I¡¯ll be down in a minute¡± I hung up and began to make my way down, out the back and in front of the store to receive my very first shipment. I explained that the front door was busted, and he had to go round the back so we can fully unload everything, he looked at me with weary unamused eyes walked back into his truck and drove it to the back of the store. This man seems not to enjoy his work or maybe he just doesn¡¯t like me as I kept seeing him look at me with a stare that you would give some belligerent drunk. But that didn¡¯t matter to me as I had more important things to do, such as take inventory of my new stock, riveting I know. After everything was unloaded and stored in my storage room, I began taking note of what I had which included something I would desperately need out here at the ass end of nowhere and decided would get delivered later on as it would have cost extra to fly with it. This being namely my old uncle¡äs hunting shotgun, now this isn¡¯t the sort of gun you would find in a fps or something no sir, it¡¯s compliant with state hunting laws. So yea not as great as a good ol automatic shotgun or the like meaning only holds 3 shells and is made for 12 gauge, but that doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t have some bells and whistles applied to this with it having a wonderful scope and leather strap. Added to that was a box of slugs and a cleaning kit for my little darling. But that¡¯s enough of me gushing about my little baby, I have inventory to take and it seems my father is at least giving me a chance with this store as many of the goods are what someone would need if they were to take a trip into the desert. I had the usual convenience store line-up of snacks both salty and sweet as well as an assortment of drinks from mini alcoholic bottles you would see by the cashiers. But the most important things that were found among drinks and food was the survival gear think dry fuel, hunting matches, hunting clothing, tents and so on, essentially anything you would need for a camping trip would be found here. After stocking the shelves around the store (mostly just the middle shelves) I began to set aside some things for my advertising mission to the other side. I gathered up the things that would make up my adventuring pack and laid them all out on the floor of my living room. I decided to bring with me: -My hunting rifle (with sling and scope) with 3 rounds loaded -a camping backpack -5 more rounds 2 buckshot and 3 slugs -canteen -some food like jerky and granola bars -a tent kit -stove with dry fuel and matches -flashlight -a hunting knife -a pair of hiking boots -a hunting jacket in desert camo As much as it pains me to use these things without even having a stable way to sell the rest of my items, I pack everything up and make my way down to the front door. Eating some beef jerky and prepping myself I stare at the doors noticing that one of the bolts wasn¡¯t engaged properly. ¡°so, when the doors are completely secured they default to earth and when not they get connected to the other side?¡± I pondered aloud; I mean I don¡¯t really have an instruction booklet about how these doors work. Pushing my idle thoughts aside once again I disengage the remaining bolts, opened the door and stepped outside and was met with the same view I saw last time though this time being outside I could see a bit more. The dirt road that was maybe 5 steps away from my door seemed to be firm and dry meaning I would be walking without too much difficulty. Turning around and looking back at the doors I had come from found them to be attached to a simple log cabin also without any windows or gaps in its walls. Behind it was another forest with thick foliage and looking down the path where the peddler from yesterday disappeared revealed that the path went through a small bit of yet more forest ending in a rather sizable, little town. ¡°Welp nothing ventured nothing gained¡± and with that, I headed towards the town slowly becoming self-conscious that my desert camouflage is doing the exact opposite it was supposed to do. Chapter 4 Walking through the forest was uneventful though there were some beautiful-looking plants when looking into the forest, none that I had ever seen before but then again, I don¡¯t commit such information to memory. As quickly as I entered the forest I also left with the small town being very close, with possibly another 7 min until I get to what seemed to be the outskirts of the town with a couple of farms dotted around. I seemed to be on a side path as the dirt path I¡¯m following seems to be twisting around many of the fields, though it seems nothing was growing in them yet. With this unobstructed field of view, I can see how a few people are walking about on the fields I couldn''t make them out that well though they do seem as short as the peddler I spoke with. After a bit more walking I finally came to what seemed to be the actual start of the city with wooden houses being clumped together more. Along with the higher housing density also came a higher density of people. It didn¡¯t take me long to realise that I stuck out like a sore thumb among the somewhat crowded streets as everyone else was about stomach height. This did not stop everyone from getting a good look at me as I soon attracted a large number of gazes which while not hostile were not exactly automatically welcoming, to say the least. After moving about town and finding a small bench to sit on I began trying to come up with a plan to somehow hawk my wares and get people to come to my store. Looking about the little town I was in struck me as eastern European in its architecture, well eastern European architecture from the Middle Ages as this was no modern-day town. The streets were paved with cobblestone the further into the village one goes with the outskirts being a mix of dirt and gravel. The clothing of everyone also reminded me of what you would find in a renascence fair if you were to replace all the colourful clothing with more drab colours which meant that the colourful clothing market would be great here. Why am I talking about clothing right now, well it''s because I am managing to get a good view of theirs at the moment due to the small (heh) crowd that¡¯s forming around me. After a bit of time has passed making me get a bit nervous about possibly getting lynched for breaking some unknown local custom one man spoke up. ¡°Are you an elf?¡± ¡°No I am no elf¡± I responded. ¡°Are you sure?¡± Caught off guard a bit by his response a ¡°yes¡± was all I replied with ¡°Really sure?¡± ¡°Yes, I am really sure I am no elf¡±. ¡°How can you be so sure¡±. ¡°Because I am not an elf¡± slowly getting a bit peeved by this little man''s incessant questioning I countered with a question myself. ¡°ARE you an elf?¡± The little man seemed to be a little startled at the sudden turn of who was asking questions and stuttered out. ¡°n-n-no I am not an elf I am far too short to be one of them, I am a proud halfling¡± so that''s what they call themselves I continued, my annoyance turning into amusement. ¡°How can you be sure you''re not an elf¡± with a small smirk forming on my lips but genuinely curious as to what differentiates the two as I have never seen one in real life. ¡°Well, I just told you I am too short to be one however if you are no elf as you say then what are you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Mark,¡± I said with a smile ¡°and would greatly appreciate it if someone could point me to the nearest pub as all this talking has gotten my throat quite parched¡±. ¡°Aye,¡± said another one from the crowd ¡°If you head that way (he pointed down a side road) take a left you will find an alehouse with the name of The Flirtatious Swine as it is the only one with room for tall folk¡±. ¡°Thank you,¡± I said to the helpful man and made my way to the alehouse following his directions. Lo and behold after 2 to 3 minutes of walking I ended up in front of a 2-story building that was quite a bit bigger than its neighbours with the sign of The Flirtatious Swine. Though it seemed I did not do the trek alone as some people from the crowd had decided to follow the not-elf to either continue gawking, get a drink for themselves or both. Entering the building I found that there were not that many customers it seemed with the bar having 2 people at it (a barkeep and barmaid both on stools which was an amusing sight) with 5 more people huddled around a table that was closest to the fireplace seemingly having been in discussion until I had come in. There was a total of 7 people in the area of 4 smaller square tables and 3 large round ones with another 4 being added on (me and the 3 peeps following me like lost chicks) with all eyes following me. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.Walking to the bar and sitting down on a stool dropping my pack next to it, I greeted the barkeep. ¡°Evening¡± ¡°Evening stranger, what¡¯ll it be dinner is severed at the end of the day¡±. Seeing as it was only just past mid-day I went with ¡°well what do you have on tap?¡± ¡°we¡¯ve got mead, ale, and vodka¡±. Not wanting to get too drunk and not having had one yet I responded with ¡°mead please¡±. The barkeep nodded, pulled out a wooden mug went to the middle barrel of the three barrels behind him and poured out a gold liquid placing it in front of me once he was done. ¡°That will be 4 copper¡± the barkeep announced and I froze. I don¡¯t have any of their money, which means I can¡¯t pay for my drink hell scratch that they don¡¯t have any US dollars meaning they can¡¯t even buy anything in my store. The barkeep seemingly sensing my lack of 4 copper that he requested, continuing with ¡°or you can give me something worth this cup of mead.¡± Him saying that gave me a bit of relief as now I wouldn¡¯t have to shamefully cancel my order after coming into the building with confidence. Thinking back at what I had brought with me I wondered what I could use as a trade for the mead looking down and rummaging through my bag. After a bit of searching, I finally found something I was sure would pay for my drink and pulled out a bag of party mix and placed it on the counter while asking for a bowl. The barkeep and barmaid sitting at the bar both looked at the packaging with awe once it was placed next to a provided wooden bowl. ¡°I am sorry sir, but such a small realistic-looking painting would be a bit too much for a simple mug of mead, would like to meet this Chex who painted it though¡±. ¡°What painting?¡± I asked in puzzlement as a grabbed the bag and rip it open pouring its contents into the bowl. The exact moment I started to rip open the party mix packaging both members of the bar stood there with large open eyes staring at me as if I had just destroyed some priceless work of art. ¡°What would you do that for?¡± the barmaid said with a shrill voice bringing the attention of the other guests to us. ¡°What it''s only a bag of salted snacks¡± I replied not knowing what all the fuss was about. ¡°What kind of affluent family are you from that such close-to-life artwork is simply used as packaging¡± replied the barkeep in a surprised but hushed voice not wanting to bring any further attention to us. ¡°Look this isn¡¯t that valuable-¡° ¡°ISN¡¯T VALUABLE?¡± That seemingly did it for the barkeep who finally lost it ¡°I have not heard or ever seen such detailed and beautiful artwork that is so close to life I feel I could reach out and grab the very thing it is portraying AND YOU WANT TO TELL ME IT¡äS NOT VALUABLE¡±. ¡°Yes,¡± I said calmly trying to stop this conversation from getting any louder, these halflings may be small but boy do they have lungs. ¡°Look the packaging is not what¡¯s important but this,¡± I say smiling trying to bring the topic of conversation to something that will likely not burst my eardrums and holding up the wooden bowl with the party mix inside. The party mix was made up of pretzels, salted nuts, Cheezit squares, Chex cereal and croutons all nestled nicely in a bowl that I hope the barkeep will now have his attention on. ¡°What is this,¡± he asked. ¡°This hear is a snack bowl with different salty treats which go well with alcoholic drinks¡± I answered with my best salesman¡¯s pitch. Cautiously he picked up a pretzel inspected it carefully and popped it into his mouth while I began to sip on the as-of-yet-untouched mead. The mead wasn¡¯t anything too great it was slightly sweet, and had a slight alcoholic kick but was all in all very watery with it possibly being meant to be drunk all day as opposed to only at social gatherings. However, while I was commenting on the quality of my mead I saw the barkeep''s eyes widen again and I winced fearing he would start yelling again. Chapter 5 A ¡°hmm salty¡± was thankfully what came out of his mouth instead of screaming at me like I somehow destroyed something akin to the Monalisa again. ¡°I can see how these snacks of yours may truly work up a thirst in someone, but do tell, where did you find these delicacies¡± He continued eyes still wide open though holding a more inquisitive nature than they did before. ¡°It must have been quite expensive to procure these snacks of yours judging by the purity of salt used within them¡± he said marvelling at another mini pretzel in his hands. ¡°Oh, they were no trouble at all, actually I have a pretty stable supply network which would allow me to procure such things for cheap and fast,¡± I say stoking the flames for a possible new customer and by extension a great advertiser of my goods if he sells them here. By now, I had caused however, enough of a commotion that the rest of the inn¡¯s clientele had decided that I was no longer a passing interest to be looked at and then forgotten about in favour of their drinks. No, now I seemed to have caused at least every one to begin to crowd around the bar to get a better look at what was causing the barkeep to erupt in such a fashion. This did allow me to get a bit of a better look at the other group I had seen when coming in, they seemed to be of a different race to the halflings within the village and while I may not be an expert in fantasy races them being around the same height as I firmly placed them in the ¡°tall folk club¡± as the halflings seem to put it. Another thing separating them from the regular townsfolk was that they wore types of armour and capes, maybe these guys are like those adventuring guys you hear so much about in tabletop games. Of the 5, 2 were large, green-muscled brutes with tusks protruding from their lower jaw (orcs I would presume) this was in contrast to their other 3 companions who were slenderer with white porcelain-like skin and pointed ears (and these would be the elves I guess). The adventuring party as I am mentally calling them are in a formation with 1 of the elves in the front two others flanking them having the 2 orcs right behind them. ¡°What¡¯s all this racket about¡± said the elf in the front of the group who I would wager is their leader. Looking at the leader a bit more they had long blond hair, an attractive face but one that still screamed ¡°not human¡± and wore a green tunic with a leather breastplate over that and a green cloak on top of that. Judging from her just jutting out a bit more than her two compatriots behind her I guessed her to be female and the other two male which was somewhat hard to do as they all had an androgynous look to them. Before I could further muse about the particularities which separated male elves from female elves their leader spoke once more. ¡°I have had it up to here with being stuck in this backwater town and your extortionate prices barkeep¡± oh did I forget to mention the aura of haughtiness exuding from her and the other two elves ¡°and the least you could do is not disturb us with your incessant yelling¡±. ¡°A thousand apologies mistress Alyn it will not happen again¡± the barkeep seemed to quickly reply with some fear hidden in his voice. ¡°But my newest guest here had just brought some exquisite snacks which simply surprised me with their quality is all¡± the man said reaching for the snack bowl and offering it to the elf ¡°it is something you must try¡±. The man to the left of the now-named elf Alyn intercepted the offered bowl taking it from the barkeep and inspecting its contents. He picked up one of the cheez-its taking a closer look, then giving it a lick, then popped it into his mouth after seemingly passing some sort of test of his. ¡°While I can¡¯t say I enjoy this type of flavour, I must accept that it is well made and full of flavour¡± the man said turning to his companion. The leader Alyn turned to me saying ¡°you are no elf for you do not have our grace, but neither do you have the primitive look of these halflings, what are you?¡± ¡°I¡äm a store owner, to be precise I¡¯m the owner of the general store out of town to the west where I have many wonderous things to sell.¡± I say speaking grandly to maybe pique their interest and have them check out my store if only to see what kind of nutjob I am, hey anything to turn a profit at the moment. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Pulling up my backpack and placing it on the counter I begin with my sales pitch while I have everyone¡¯s attention, (hell I should have done this while I had the bigger crowd of halflings all looking at me) and begin displaying my items. First I pulled out more food stuffs like the packed jerky and granola bars opening them and displaying them for all to see. ¡°The snack mix is not the only thing I have available to buy in my store but also jerky, granola bars and other long-lasting travel food¡± The elf to the right of Alyn now spoke up eying the jerky unimpressed ¡°We are aware of this dried meat, dried fruit and nuts they are commonly used travel rations and so far the only fantastical element is how you managed to get the fruits and nuts shaped into something resembling a plank of wood.¡± ¡°Ah but this is no ordinary jerky for it is actually palatable, tender and has flavours other than simple salt¡± I tap on the packaging with brown letters spelling teriyaki ¡°and these granola bars are a wonderfully sweet treat, sweater than even fresh fruit.¡± While doing my best car salesmen impression the elf who I was talking to finally picked up the granola and bit a piece of it off nodding enthusiastically once the food hit his tastebuds. ¡°Miss Alyn he speaks the truth it truly is sweat, it is as if it were slathered in honey¡± at this the other two elves began to split the granola bar between themselves all nodding and seemingly savouring the taste. ¡°What about the meat¡± spoke one of the orcs in a deep low but booming voice, ¡°you said it to be tender and not taste of salt¡± ¡°Of course, my good sir have a taste of it yourself¡± I say handing a slice of jerky to him which he accepts with one of his two great big hands and began to inspect it more closely. First, he felt the dried piece of meat around in his hand, satisfied that my claim or it not resembling a bit of leather in texture he ripped a piece off and popped it into his mouth. While still chewing he made an affirmative grunt and said: ¡°you speak the truth I do not require much to chew it and it has a sweet taste.¡± At the mention of the jerky having a sweet taste the elves snapped to him in unison startling the orc a bit, then looked at the remaining bit of meat in his hand and then slowly turned to face me with a stare that said ¡°gimmie¡±. ¡°Have no fear there is enough for you all¡± I say as I began to hand bits of the jerky to their now outstretched arms as well as the other halfling customers who had decided that they too wanted to be a part of this taste testing session. While everyone was busy enjoying my meat (heh) I pulled out my remaining things and started to lay them out on the bar counter as well. After the crowd was finished enjoying their new treats I allowed them to look at my other wares occasionally asking questions about the purpose of it or speculating about their uses. The adventuring group was very interested in the tent kit, though the orcs were the most enthused about learning of it, while everyone was enraptured when hearing about the hunting matches even more so when I told them they could even use them when wet. The flashlight was another surprise as while the oil lamps that were lighting up the area were by no means weak; they were comparable to those early energy-saving light bulbs. The flashlight surprised the poor halfling who had the light end pointed towards his eyes and accidentally turned it on the flood light setting. Soon, however, the questions went from asking about my goods to asking about my clothes and what material they were made of. After attempting and failing to try and explain what polyester was I just told them that they were made of a material that would not absorb water and instead simply have any liquid slide off its surface. Though the questions did increase in intensity when I absentmindedly mentioned that the camo pattern was meant for the desert and the subject of their questions returned to what I was and my origins. Knowing about how I would look if I told them I came here from a world of technological marvels through a pair of magical portals I needed to figure out how to stop them from asking those questions. This is gonna be a headache. Chapter 6 After enough weaselling from my side, I managed to convince them that if they want any more answers about where I came from or what even I am (as it seems like humans don¡¯t exist in Badalia the name of this world). Oh right after weaselling out of being the subject of conversation once again I got to speaking with the bar¡¯s patrons about the surrounding lands and apparently, the town of Pasdur was located on the outskirts of the Darum Tsardom. When I mean outskirts I mean located on the border of where civilization ends and a large untamed steppe begins only known as the wild lands. Apparently, the town mainly subsists off of a trade route for furs and surrounding communities who provide them with herd animals while doing some small amount of farming. Asking more about the town I found out it has a small wooden keep at its centre with it being the place where most of the local political structure is located as well as most of its military/law enforcement. As for the steppe, the only things that live there are large herds of buffalo-like creatures and countless nomadic orc tribes one of which the two present orcs are actually from. Apparently, the little group of elves and orcs are part of some sort of trading mission to contact a tribe with the two orcs being sent as their guides. This is because most of the furs that come from the trade route here are sourced from those buffalo things that the orc tribes hunt, apparently these beasts are huge which explains the large, muscled build of the orc tribals (can¡¯t be no string bean to hunt something the size of a car). Thanking everyone for their time I gave them more specific directions to my store and in return asked for directions to their local store so I could check out what local prices were, what was being offered and most importantly scope out the competition. ¡°The only store that matches yer description would be the one Hotchlick the peddler runs, it¡¯s close by¡± smiled the barkeep and I went on my way following his directions to the store. After a bit of walking, getting lost and needing to ask for directions I finally got to the building that matched the description I was given. Before you give me shit about losing my way when told the store is close by I will have you know that every single building here is made of the same wood and is built in a similar way, something about wood being cheaper than stone here. Walking in I was met with a familiar sight it was the first ever person I had met, the piss-smelling peddler Hotchlik. Thinking back to that encounter my nostrils were dreading being face to face with him once more though either he changed his clothes or had a good bath as he longer smelt like he bathed solely in yellow showers. ¡°Ah hello I see you have come to find me, does this mean your store is open for business now?¡± he said in a booming enthusiastic voice. ¡°Yes,¡± I say looking around at his own wares on display, looking around I saw many trinkets and baubles that puzzled me to their use after getting a closer look. I started to understand how the people at the bar felt after showing them my own wonders ¡°what is it you sell here?¡± ¡°Oh what ever is needed, things like cutlery, shoes, clothing, gicks, and my main business furs¡± he answers with a big smile. ¡°Gicks?¡± I ask. ¡°You must be from a far-off place indeed as every child and labourer knows about gicks ¡± he explains. ¡°Gicks is a term for wonderful little contraptions which consume magi dust to work¡±. sensing my continued confusion, he says ¡°you might remember our first meeting while I was still on the road, I wasn¡¯t smelling my best, that was the use of a gick which produced a pungent odour warding away hostile animals.¡± ¡°I would counsel you to buy one yourself seeing as your store is on the outside of the town¡± he warned, ¡°there have been more beast attacks in the past few days on surrounding villages and their livestock. I fear a pack of beasts have set up around in the woods¡±. ¡°I will take heed of your warning but don¡¯t worry, I have protective measures of my own,¡± I say holding up my lovely 12-gauge. ¡°I see, I take it it¡äs a noisemaker of some sort?¡± he guesses. ¡°Oh, it is so much more than that my friend¡± and I began regaling him about the history of hunting weapons and how they work, only noticing that I began to lose my conversational partner the moment I started to explain the technical aspects of a shotgun. Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Sorry about that, I get a bit passionate about these kinds of things but in essence, it is a gun and will keep me safe if needed.¡± Attempting to reassure him that I won¡¯t suddenly be snatched up by a group of wolves or whatever is in those woods. ¡°But¡± I continue ¡°I have come to you for some advice on the local prices in town.¡± ¡°Happy to help, my main business is fur trading, and I am quite happy to see some other enterprising individuals take the none fur part of this town¡¯s business into their own hands.¡± Apparently, the market for household items is large but has razor-thin margins due to logistical issues (i.e., on the very border of civilization). Food is usually provided by surrounding villages who sell their produce on something called market day in return for spices and products the villages can¡¯t make themselves. Also, I managed to learn a bit about the history of this little town with it starting off as a trading outpost for buffalo beast furs it then becoming a pseudo-military outpost in case of nomadic attacks. Though that second job the town had seemed to have become obsolete as it seems the nomadic tribals have been pacified or at least are no longer interested in attacking and raiding the town. Finally getting a good enough idea of the local price structure of coins: Special wooden tokens are used only in town and surrounding villages Impure silver coins= 1¨C2 dollar bills Silver coins = 10s and 20 bills Vials of magi dust= 50-100 bills Special white and pink gold coins= the more valuable dollar bills As well as getting a good idea of what the local market holds in high or low demand, for example, clothing not made out of fur is expensive and a show of your wealth/being an out-of-towner. This would explain why the adventuring group wasn¡ät clad in furs (except the orcs) with Hotchlick having a bit of money to spend allowing him to wear something else. Since it started to get late we bid our farewells and I made my way back to my store with a newfound sense of purpose seeing as I now have a potential stable customer base to exploit. Walking past a few more people that were heading home for the night I struck up conversations with them about my store of wonders hoping to get more potential customers and spread the word about my store. Nearing the entrance of the little forest path I had to take to get back to my store I felt a slight chill run down my spine and a feeling in my gut telling me something was wrong. Dismissing those thoughts as simply being due to the cold and having only had a small breakfast and ale for food today I walked into the forest. That doesn¡¯t mean I completely ignored my body¡¯s warnings and racked my shotgun to see what was in the chamber. My gun revealed to me a red plastic casing which meant bird shot was loaded first, so I slid the pump back and made it so my gun was ready to fire. I was maybe 3-5 steps away from my front door when I saw something in the corner of my eye causing me to spin around gun ready to fire. What I saw was a weird mish-mash of forest foliage and a wolf having stepped onto the dirt path eyeing me as its next prey with two more sets of eyes right behind it. However, my sudden 180 turn seemed to have startled it for a second not expecting me to have noticed them and I pulled the trigger to my shotgun. Now I can tell you about how accurate and cool I was with my shot but that would be a lie and also beg the question as to why I am currently kicking a gillie wolf off of my left foot. Well, simple I missed my shot in a panic I shot too high only startling the trio, after the initial shock of the big boom stick had worn off the leader of the trio jumped and went for my foot. Now I was very lucky to have two things happen; one the leather boots I wore were too thick for the wolf to bite through and two my second flailing shot that should have missed hit the wolf on the right square in the face dropping him. ¡°GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF GET OFFFFFFF¡± I screamed bashing my right leg into the biting wolf¡äs unprotected face. Thankfully blunt-force persuasion is something that works on these beasts and he retreated back to where his remaining friend was looking at his fallen comrade. Now the beast¡äs whines and continued prods with his snoot to get his ¡°sleeping¡± friend to wake up may have been heart-breaking if it were not for the fact, they wanted to make a meal out of me. Sitting up I pointed my gun at the leader¡äs head who was seemingly distracted by telling his friend to stop messing with the dead and help him and pulled the trigger yet again. This shot was not filled with panic nor flailed with luck and found its mark nailing the wolf in the head and ripping away its face. This promptly told the remaining wolf that this battle was lost and that running away with its tail between its legs was the better option and so it turned and ran. ¡°Oh no you don¡¯t¡± not wanting these things to stay around and potentially try and maul me again pulled another bead onto the running wolf only to hear a *click* once I pulled the trigger. ¡°Ah right, only three shots¡± I was so hopped up on adrenalin that I forgot my rifle only has 3 shots and no more. I may have gone hunting with my uncle quite a few times but never was I in any actual danger. Deciding not to want to deal with any more potential bullshit that may come my way today I opened the doors and fucked off back home. Chapter 7 Entering the store and slamming the door and its bolts shut with a swiftness I haven¡¯t had since nearly getting caught yanking it in the middle school bathrooms, and started to get my breathing under control. I was not in a good state, don¡¯t get me wrong the encounter with those biting bushes could have gone much worse but I didn¡¯t get out unscathed. I noticed this after slowly sliding down the door to sit as a wave of fatigue washed over me the moment my adrenalin began to leave my body. After sitting on the ground for a bit and calming myself down I wanted to stand up only to realise that my left ankle was in pain feeling like its been thrashed around and mauled which it was. Taking off my boot and getting a closer look told me nothing really, I didn¡¯t have any open wounds which is good and every time I moved my foot it hurt but felt no bones clicking or anything. Though I did find a broken-off tooth embedded into the side of my shoe sole. Once again not knowing anything about animals I immediately pronounced it a wolf-fang tooth-looking thing and left it at that. Looking back to my foot, I decided that in my non-existent expert medical opinion, I diagnose myself with a sprained ankle, as that¡¯s what came up when I described my symptoms to the internet on my phone. Well, a sprained ankle or cancer and I have 3 days left to live I am pretty sure those leafy wolves are not radioactive even if they are very green and deadly. However, even after all of that I still had this weird sinking feeling in my gut telling me something was off I mean I did leave the front door unlocked but I don¡¯t think woodland critters are able to open and close a door. So what is it that¡¯s making me so nervous, I didn¡¯t forget any of my kit back in town and a quick check of my pack confirmed that so what was it? Thinking while trying to get myself upright and not putting too much weight on my leg, and just as I was about to get upright it hit me like a baseball bat to the back of my head. I got the customers, I got their interest and I have something no one else has in that market... but I don¡¯t have any way they can pay. I mean yea sure they could pay me in their coins and all, but they may as well be on the same level of Disney bucks when it comes to using them back in the good ol US of A. ¡°Fuck¡± I cursed at my stupidity of forgetting one of the most basic things when selling your product to someone, get something of value in return. What kind of value can I even get from them; FURS??? I mean finding a buyer is already gonna be a pain, not to mention a buyer who doesn¡¯t mind me getting them from an unknown foreign source, not to mention the potential lawsuits I can get served with if those furs carry any diseases or make someone sick. Can¡¯t import anything else they have for the same reasons unless I can get my hands on those gold coins which might be valuable only problem is that the inhabitants of the little town never even use denominations that high. ¡°AAAAAARH¡± I screamed in frustration looking around to throw something I spied the broken wolf fang. Grabbing it and throwing it against the wall did help me relax in some part of my primal monkey brain but frustration still lingered within me slowly turning to dread as I began to wonder how I¡¯m going to pay the bills from now on. *VRRRRM* *CRUNCH* *PLINK* I was torn away from my musings by the sounds that suddenly filled my shop. Looking around for the source of the sudden noise I saw how the industrial bread slicer thingamabob was on, or at least looked like it was on with its green blinking light. Pulling myself up by making use of the door handles I stood up and limped towards the curious machine. Standing in front of the odd contraption I looked to see if anything had changed. Outer structure: nope still looks like a bread slicer. Inner components: still looks like a black endless void on both the intake pipe and output shoot. Lights: blinking green Consensus: it''s on and I think that¡¯s all that changed- Is what I would have said if not for the fact that a little sparkle caught my eye on the machine''s output shoot. Bending town and trying to get a better look at what the hell it might be revealed it to be a small speck of gold but how. Does this machine just spit out small golden flakes now and then because if so that¡¯s cool but not gonna be enough to keep my life afloat. Maybe I can sell that tooth to a local university and fake it being from a new kind of coyote that could possibly keep my store afloat. Now if only I knew where that tooth went. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.After looking for an embarrassingly long time trying to find one singular wolf tooth I gave up trying to discover where it had landed. Even more embarrassingly is how long it took me to put two (the wolf fang missing) and two (the machine suddenly springing to life and producing a speck of gold) together about what happened. Apparently, I am great at hitting things in blind panic or rage with aimed shots being my weakness, as I seem to have managed to throw that fang into the machine which turned it into gold. Now while I was feeling like an idiot for a while an actually smart revelation popped up in my mind telling me that my monetary issue has been solved as customers simply throw whatever they need into the machine and out pops gold. Gold which they can then use to buy my things, and I can then in turn sell the gold to cash for gold or something... gonna have to work on that part of the plan. Small plan hick ups aside the path before me is now clear I must simply follow it. Or at least I¡¯m going to be following it tomorrow as I am pooped and can¡¯t do much with this damn ankle, hopefully, some bed rest will cure it. The next day I woke up early and ate another breakfast of dried jerky and nuts (I really need to get some regular groceries) and made my way down the stairs with difficulty because my ankle was still a little sore. I opened the doors ready to open up for the day and immediately swore. ¡°FUCK¡± I had completely forgotten about the two dead wolf things in front of my building, and as a business major I can say with certainty that dead corpses do not make a store approachable. I dragged both corpses with great difficulty around the back out of the way where their shrubbery-like fur would easily camouflage them not requiring me to look for a good hiding place. Since the climate here is quite cold here the corpses should hold for a while until I found out what I could do with them and limped back into the store. After clearing away the two wolf corpses I made my way to one of the cashier desks, on the desk stood an old-timey-looking cash register but upon closer inspection would reveal that much like the store it too was more than it seemed. This cash register was like others you may have seen except for what seemed to be a scale attached to it with a small display to display weight and a chute which would give the customer their change. Opening the cash register''s cash drawer I place a couple of bills and coins into it hoping that through some magical bullshit, it will convert my money into useable change with me needing to get creative if not. And so my first real day starts, sitting and waiting to see who or what comes through those doors to become my first customer. And so I waited, and waited, aaaaaaaaand waited and just as I was about to finally lose all hope of getting anybody through the front door today someone finally entered the store. ¡°Hello there,¡± I say greeting them. ¡°Hi¡± came a reply in a feminine voice belonging to a female halfling. Who else to be my first customer than someone from the bar I made my first appearance in, more specifically it was the barmaid. ¡°I guess you¡¯re looking for the snacks I showed you guys yesterday,¡± I say with a smile. She nods. ¡°Alright, snacks are in aisle 1 just through the metallic gate¡± I explain telling her where to go. ¡°Oh and before I forget my store is a bit more special than I previously let on, see that machine to the right of you.¡± I point to the magical machine. She looks and nods back at me. ¡°Right just throw whatever cash you are planning to use on this shopping trip, as I don¡¯t accept coin here and instead use what comes out of the machine.¡± ¡°Why that,¡± she asks. ¡°Have no use for it, simple as that¡± this seemed to placate her for the time being and she popped a few coins into the top hopper. Though it has just occurred to me that I am going to need some step ladders for these folks or otherwise the stuff I put onto the top shelf will never be sold. Chapter 8 *VRRRRM* *PLINK* *PLINK* *PLINK* As if she had just the jackpot on a slot machine little gold nuggets began to come out of the magical gold conversion machine as I have decided to call it. I wonder if I can skip the customers and just put junk into the machine and just get rich off of the remaining gold that I find, eh an experiment for another time. While the barmaid disappeared past the large wooden shelves I began to expand my little list of modifications I will need to do to this store for optimal day-to-day operations. Other than a couple of step ladders for the halflings so they can reach more than the middle shelves I also might need those supermarket baskets. Along with that, I could also make a pretty penny selling things like bags for your purchases, I say pretty penny because the barmaid is currently approaching me and it seems as though she has replaced the top half of her body with Chex party mix. With a big ¡°uff¡± she placed her bounty of party snacks onto the counter, and I began to note down each and everyone as this is no fancy schmancy electric cash register but a mechanical one. Meaning I had to input everything manually into the machine. When I finally finished and looked up at the little woman to give her, her total she looked at me in confusion. ¡°That will be 62,91.¡± ¡°What... how did you?¡± ¡°Oh right, mechanical cash register type the amount and price of whatever ever and it will give you the total.¡± Looking at her with a smile ¡°neat right.¡± ¡°Is that a gick¡± she asked in her high-pitched voice. ¡°No, didn¡¯t you hear me it''s mechanical, not magical.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± she said while eying me with the same confusion she had before ¡°what do I do with these then¡± she held out her hand holding the golden nuggets. ¡°Ah right place them on this scale.¡± Walking up and placing the gold nuggets onto the scale as instructed the total of the gold was told to me as 70 dollars. Inputting the number on the cash register and opening the cash drawer, my dreams of easy cash conversion were dashed as all I had to give her were dollars. The question is what do I do now, short-change her and hope she doesn¡¯t notice? Give her an IOU for the remaining 7.09? What the hell am I supposed to do in this situation... Wait, barter, if I remember correctly people used to barter in the medieval ages and the halfling¡¯s society seems to simulate it I could just give her something worth those remaining dollars. ¡°Is something the matter sir?¡± she asks seemingly sensing my distress at being without any change to give her. ¡°Ah no not really, I simply have a tiny little issue being that I don¡¯t have any change at the moment. So I could give you two options, either I give you store credit for the remaining 7 dollars or you could look for something worth those 7 dollars in the shop.¡± ¡°Uh okay,¡± she said unsurely ¡°but what about those coins I saw in the drawer.¡± ¡°What these¡± I was surprised she was even able to see them seeing as her head was all that poked over the counter. ¡°Well, they aren¡¯t the coins you guys use¡± I explain handing her a quarter. After handing her the coin she looked at it for a while studying it closely and only after 5 min have passed (yea I kept track) did she open her mouth again. ¡°You say you are but a shop keep but would it not be a better idea to change your profession to that of an artist, even as a lowly peasant I can tell the incredible craftsmanship of this coin.¡± Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°No, just like with the bag of party mix these coins are not bits of artwork but are used as simple currency where I¡¯m from.¡± ¡°Hmm¡± looking unconvinced I decided to size on her apparent fondness of the quarter and wipe away my little 7-dollar debt. ¡°How about this I give you that quarter for the remaining value, how does that sou-¡° Cutting me off with a ¡°yes¡± she gathered her newly bought things as well as the quarter and ran out the door. With my first successful sale, the day was looking good and hopefully, this type of success will follow through for the rest of the day. An hour later, however, that hopeful turned into a doubtful with no one else seemingly coming in to check on the new store in their town. Waiting for the next customer I began to inspect the small golden nuggets I had received; they weren¡¯t your kind of rough nuggets that would come out of a mine. All the nuggets had a sort of uniformity as they looked like little cubes with rough, bumpy surfaces you would find straight out of the ground. Around the third hour of waiting for someone to finally grace me with their presence and was about to give up I heard the door open again and with a hopeful gaze, I turned towards the entrance. What walked into the store were a pair of halflings clad in green cloaks looking like a pair of hunters with their bows in one hand and a leather quiver of arrows on their back. ¡°Hello there,¡± I say greeting them. Taking off their hoods and revealing their faces showed one man to have some stubble on his chin while the other one had a walrus-type moustache on him. I name thee stubble and walrus... what I¡¯m bored out of my mind alright give me a break. Stubble was the first to open his mouth, ¡°what are you?¡± Oh no not this again, these halfling types seem to be rather direct with their questions, well at least he didn¡¯t as if I was a- ¡°Are you an elf?¡± came out before I could even finish my thought. ¡°Nope, not an elf just a simple shop keep of an amazing store¡±. ¡°This is a store?¡± asked walrus ¡°not like any store I have seen before¡±. ¡°Well yes of course it is,¡± I asked giving the walrus a puzzled look ¡°what did you think this was¡± ¡°We thought it was a hunter''s lodge if anything¡± came stubbles voice again ¡°outside doesn¡¯t tell you much¡± His words did ring true as the outside building here did look just like a wooden log cabin, and it being out in the woods the confusion was maybe what is causing my lack of customers. ¡°It is a store if anything and not a hunter''s lodge, but I do have some things for hunters if you would like to browse¡± Both hunters looked at each other, said some words one of them shrugged and they stepped forward to the metal gate. ¡°Ah before I forget ya might want to put any coin you are planning on using in the store into that contraption there¡± I point to the bread box-looking thing (still don¡¯t know what to call it). The men look at ¡°ah we weren¡¯t expecting any stores here and didn¡¯t see a need to bring any coin on a hunting trip.¡± That might be a problem, I don¡¯t want to send them away as my finances are pretty thin at the moment even with that one little bulk purchase. ¡°Hmm, do you guys have anything to barter perchance?¡± Walrus reaches out to his back and pulls out some small dead critters that he had seemingly strapped to his back. ¡°We were planning to use these to bait bigger prey but I suppose we could spare a few of them if you want to buy them.¡± He says handing me a few squirrel-looking things tied to a rope. ¡°Right,¡± I say carefully handing him back the rope of dead rodents ¡°just pop them into the machine there and it will give you what you need to buy things from my store.¡± I really hope this works as it did with that wolf fang. *VRRRRM* *PLINK* Thankfully the machine accepted the dead rodents as payment, not thankfully is that the machine apparently decided they were not worth much and only spit out a few small gold cube nuggets. ¡°Uh, how much are these worth,¡± says walrus taking the golden nuggets and placing them onto the counter in front of me. Picking them up and placing them onto the scale revealed them to be around 5.00 USD. ¡°Alright, your total gold worth is 5 dollars, which means that anything worth 5 dollars is what you can get.¡± ¡°OK,¡± they both said seemingly unsure how to even say the word and both walked through the gate and into the store proper. I followed them a bit with my eyes seeing how they looked around seemingly awed by many of my products (or more likely their packaging) picking them off the shelf carefully and then putting them back. This continued for a while until they were out of sight and I was once again stuck alone with my thoughts hoping that more customers will flow through the front door. Chapter 9 While throwing around thoughts in my head wondering about all the different things that I still have to do to get this store running like clockwork one of the hunters came back. Stubbles walked up to the counter holding a granola bar and plopping it down on the counter. ¡°Is this 5 dollars?¡± ¡°Nah that¡¯s 2,95.¡± ¡°Ah alright¡± and with that, he picked up the granola bar and returned to wherever his buddy was leaving me alone once again. For about 5 seconds because then walrus walked up to the counter with a can of gel fuel for those camping stoves. ¡°Is this 5 dollars?¡± ¡°Uh no that¡¯s 4,50.¡± Nodding he pick up his item and walked back to where he had gotten it from. Another 5 seconds later stubbles returned with a new item in his hand, a bag of jerky and placed it on the counter. ¡°Is this 5 dollars?¡± ¡°... no that¡¯s 3,50.¡± Picking up the bag of jerky he once again disappeared behind the store''s large wooden shelves. This little song and dance went on for about 4 more times until I finally decided to ask. ¡°What are you guys doing?¡± Walrus who was in the middle of placing a new item on the counter froze. ¡°Uh, we are asking you for the prices.¡± ¡°Yea I can see that but why?¡± ¡°Well, we can¡¯t really understand what these plaques underneath the items say.¡± ¡°... ohgoddamit.¡± I say in an exasperated sigh covering my face in a double facepalm. Price translations welp, I guess that¡¯s another thing to add to my ever-expanding list. I¡¯m now thinking that it might be better just to have those magical doors removed and try my luck selling to desert hikers and the like. ¡°Alright, you know what,¡± I say standing up and hobbling towards the duo ¡°how about I just help you directly.¡± ¡°Aye, that would help¡± responded walrus. With me tagging along on their little shopping trip it went a lot smoother and I finally managed to find something to sell to them. The bag of jerky is what I sold them, yea I sold them a 3,50 bag of dried meat for 5 dollars, consider the 1,50 my fee for helping them, quit judging me I¡¯m about to be broke here. Seeing off the two hunters with their purchase I went back to my list jotting down points on my phone as to what I needed to do. -Better advertising: gotta somehow get the word out about my store and its location better as being on the outskirts is not getting me any foot traffic. -Translations: customers have to somehow understand the prices I am displaying because I can''t tell everyone the price of something every time someone asks. -Signs: Need to tell those that do eventually find my store that, yes this log building is in fact my store and nothing else (there may be a woodworker or sign maker in town I might be able to hire). -Change: I have to get myself a stockpile of local currency so that when I need to purchase something from this magical world I can do so. -Improved security: I need to either get some armour or a gun I can rapid fire, I mean more bullets means a better chance at hitting things right (I think that¡¯s how that works right?). -Wildlife prevention: If those wolves attack me again or any of my customers it¡¯s going to get very difficult doing any sort of business in this area. Other than those 6 points I can¡¯t think of anything else that might be needed for my little store, though something might crop up later on. So with potentially little to no other customers deciding to enter my store, I decided to close up shop early and set up my gear for another excursion into town. I also made doubly sure to load my rifle with more shells (this time of the slug variety) and cleaned off any dirt which clung to the gun after my extreme petting session with the local wildlife. Closing up shop and locking the door this time on my way out I began walking down the trail that led me to town wondering how I am going to be able to fulfil my mental checklist. ¡°I could just ask random passer-byes for directions, though the chance that they can tell me anything useful might not be high¡± I mumbled to myself throwing around ideas in my mind. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Thinking of other options when it came to asking for advice and directions, I came up with two other ideas. One would be to ask the barkeep since I already have a business relationship with him via selling the party mix he could possibly help me with explaining prices to newcomers. He might know how to translate costs to others since he seems to cater to travellers and some of those might not be too familiar with the local coinage. My second and possibly best idea would be to ask Hotchlick as the local fur merchant might be able to help me the most seeing as we both have similar professions. I decided to visit the bar keep first in my little town visit seeing as the peddler might be a bit busy during the day. Remembering my way back to the bar I had visited my first time in town took a while as there weren¡¯t any kind of street signs I could rely on. Though eventually, I did manage to find it though not because of my acute memory skills or anything like that but because of a large crowd which had gathered around the front of the bar. Along with the crowd stood a familiar barmaid handing out small bowls filled with party mix to different groups of people sitting on outside benches. Along with the barmaid presumably selling the small bowls of party mix to different drinking groups was the barkeep himself selling drinks from barrels he brought to the front of his door. My happy musings of finally finding the bar I was looking for along with my products being positively received by the locals ended when I spotted that mugs of ale and party mix weren¡¯t the only things being sold. A glittering bit of paper seemed to be sold as well, and only after closer inspection did I realise what it was and what it had been used for. These guys were selling the opened-up bags of party mix as mirrors, by cutting the bags in two using the reflective insides of the packaging and affixing them to a pair of sticks. Making my way towards the bar keeping himself was for all intense and purposes easy as the crowd might be wide it is not especially tall. After much wiggling through drunk and about-to-be-drunk patrons I finally made it to the barkeep who immediately lit up upon seeing me. ¡°Ah our wonderful shop keep am I glad to see you¡± he thrusts his arms aside and pulls me into a meaty hug. ¡°I hope you are doing well these biscuits, what did you call them again party mix? Are wonderful I¡¯ve never sold this much ale in a single day¡± he exclaims releasing me from his surprisingly strong grip. ¡°I am just as happy to see people enjoying my wares, though to be honest, I did not come here simply to see how well you were doing.¡± ¡°Oh, what do you need friend¡± the barkeep responded in between refilling empty mugs and taking in coins. ¡°Well you see I have a bit of a branding problem as no one seems to think that a log cabin on the outskirts of town is a general store, and was wondering if you could help me¡± ¡°I see, what you need is a sign my boy¡± pausing his continuous refilling of cups he points down the road. ¡°I got my sign from a local carpenter; his fletching may not be the best but his painting is the best in town. Head on down that way until you get to a building named Bortche¡¯s carpenter something... ya can''t miss it¡± ¡°Well if he¡¯s such a good painter why doesn¡¯t he just do that as his job¡± I reply tiling my head in puzzlement. ¡°Not much need for a painter in this town¡± comes the reply from the barkeep. ¡° Thanks for the help mister...?¡± ¡°Mantivit¡± He smiles shaking my outstretched hand. ¡°Well, Mantivit seeing as you''re busy I won''t take up more of your time,¡± I say and make my way to this odd-sounding carpenter. Leaving the bar I began down the street which in great contrast to the hustle and bustle of the crowd I left behind was bereft of people. It was leaning towards evening in the day but there meant to be some folk who should still be lurking around instead of the streets being as deserted as they are. But hey who am I to judge I¡¯ve only just visited this town like twice aint my problem, and just as I had finished that thought I came upon the wooden house of my destination. Now a lot of these houses are very similar in their architecture and outwardly appearance but this one building here broke the mould quite spectacularly by having the image of a halfling welcoming people to BORTCHE THE GREAT ARTIST & carpenter¡¯s STORE. Yea for whatever reason carpenter in the carpenter store was not as grandly written and seemingly added after the main artwork was put onto the building''s walls. Feeling a bit put off at the sight of my new sign-maker''s clear disregard for the profession which would create my new sign I pressed onward into the building. Now upon opening the door, I have a slight question for you, what would you expect when first opening the door to a carpenter store? I would personally say I expected tools of the trade, maybe some stacks of wood to be turned into items as requested, that sort of stuff. No luck here though as the image that faced me was one more reminiscent of my university¡¯s art room, i.e. full of brushes, paints and canvas to be painted on, though in this switch out the canvas for a type of thin wood. ¡°NOOOOOOooooooooo¡± Oh and before I forget the most notable of all was the howling banshee of a halfling in the middle of the room crying over an empty cup of red paint. ¡°uh¡± ¡°WHYYYYyyyyy¡± ¡°h-hello¡± ¡°WHY ME WHY NOW WHY WHY WHYYYYyyy¡± ¡°HEY QUIT CRYING ALREADY¡± With my oh so endless amounts of patience exhausted already at his incessant crying I snap the man out of his own sorrow-filled world he was currently residing in. Though while I managed to get the guy to take note of me he quickly returned to crying in a matter of seconds. ¡°Oh it''s hopeless, all is lost.¡± ¡°What why- no never mind I was told I could get a sign done here.¡± ¡°Oh no it¡¯s impossible I can''t for I have no more red paint, all is lost all is hope-¡° ¡°WAIT... didyoujustsayyourequiremyservices¡± turning his head away from his beloved red to face me like I were in a Japanese horror flick. ¡°uh... y-y-yes I uh I do¡± but his unexpected change in demeanour defiantly put me on edge.¡§ ¡°OH HOW WONDERFUL with your funding I may have the funds to finish my masterpiece.¡± ¡°riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight¡± with a drawn out and highly unsure right I responded though it apparently didn¡¯t shake the confidence of the carpenter. It seems as though the lack of a local currency stockpile is going to bite me in the ass sooner than I thought... unless. ¡°I might not be able to pay you in coin but something much more valuable,¡± I say with a big Cheshire smile appearing on my face. Though my sly little idea that was forming was something I immediately regretted upon seeing the carpenter''s reaction. Chapter 10 This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.