Before I reached the village entrance, I received a system notification.
[A player in your region has reached level 10!]
I had never received a notification like that before.
'Could the protection around the Astar territory have been preventing these notifications from getting through? This can't be the first time a player in my region has reached level 10!'
When the fusion between Earth and Mundus occurred, giving rise to the New World, the territories of both worlds also became interlinked.
Mundus previously had four continents, and three of them merged with one or more continents from Earth, while the fourth joined the Arctic glaciers. And the continent of America, where I was, linked to the Continent of Salvation in Mundus.
According to the Global Map and the Player System, my region encompassed my entire country of origin, Brazil, as well as the Kingdom of Ceratris and a small part of the border of the Theocracy of Elênis, where Astar was located—places that had been absorbed by Brazilian territory.
It was a very large region for only now someone to be reaching level 10. I myself could have reached that level on my first day after the world fusion if I hadn't chosen to store my experience points in the Infinite Inventory Bag.
Currently, I had the 28.515 experience points I received for defeating the level 55 Aracna with Stroke of Luck and a torch, which I still found hard to believe.
I managed to gather an additional 505 experience points by battling the simulations in the optimized training zone, having successfully defeated 215 level 1 simulations and 25 level 2 simulations.
That totaled 29.020 experience points which, according to the Player System, were enough to get me to level 33 and still leave me with 1600 points left over.
Of course, I had been very lucky to defeat a high-level beastial and gained many experience points on the first day. However, just the experience I had gathered in the optimized training zone was already enough to reach level 9.
'And that's with me getting only one fifth the experience points real beastials would provide.'
With the Global Map, I could locate many areas that were habitats for low-level beastials near cities and within Ceratris territory. Surely the Mundus players who were used to these creatures would have already managed to reach level 10 in the last 90 days.
With the theory that the protection was blocking system notifications, I renewed my hopes and tested my cell phone, which I carried in the little bag at my waist.
Unfortunately, there wasn't a single signal bar yet.
I put it away with a sigh. There was still no possibility of contact with people from Earth, but perhaps I could get some information in the village just ahead.
I was both excited and nervous to see other people. It had been so long since I had spoken to anyone besides my parents. I had always been an introvert, but three months barely talking to anyone was just too much.
The village was a single dirt road. Small, compared to the streets I was used to. It was lined on both sides by buildings made of clay, wood, and stone.
The first facility I came across was a stable, and a few meters after that, a kind of small market, with wooden stalls on both sides of the street.
Displayed on them were various utensils, foods like vegetables and fruits, ore stones and other materials, and some other knick-knacks. Next to the stalls, there was also a wagon with assorted products on it.
I could see houses and establishments along at least a hundred meters from the village entrance, up to the point where there was what looked like a church. Then, the single street forked into two, which continued for a few more dozen meters, one to the right and the other to the left.
'It's a more commercially bustling place than I expected' I thought, observing nearly forty people bustling around the half-dozen stalls.
This fact was positive for me. Earth money certainly wouldn't be accepted in Mundus territories, so I needed to trade or sell things to get tiélvians, the local currency used across the Continent of Salvation.
Well, at least that was the case five hundred years ago, and I hoped it still was.
Gradually, the villagers began to notice my presence. They looked me up and down and nudged each other to point me out. However, their looks didn't seem hostile, but curious.
'Are these looks because I'm an unfamiliar face in the village, or is something about me standing out too much? Do they know I'm not from Mundus? I imagined my clothes would draw some attention, could it be that?'
I was wearing black jeans and a grey, plain shirt, made by my mother with the clothes I found in the temple. Over it, I had an old black backpack, the one I used on a daily basis before the fusion and everything.
Obviously, I was deviating from the local clothing standard, even though I tried to tone it down a little.
The clothes there were made of a fabric similar to hemp and, for the most part, had that same color. The men wore a kind of loose shirt and pants that went down to their shins, tied at the waist with belts that looked like they were made of rope or leather. The women wore shirts and skirts or dresses that covered part of their calves. Some of the villagers wore vests over their outfits. The colors were neutral: yellowish white, beige, brown, khaki. On their feet, they wore simple sandals.
I looked down at the combat boots on my feet. I had chosen them even though they weren't the most comfortable footwear for a long walk precisely because I believed they would stand out less than a pair of sneakers. But it seemed they still drew attention.
I approached one of the stalls and spent some time observing the displayed products. I hoped the vendor on the other side would start a conversation.
From what I read in the Temple of the Knowledge of Astar's library, the language spoken in almost all countries of the central and southern regions of the Continent of Salvation was Low Vernacular of Salvation, or simply Low Vernacular. This was, in fact, one of the languages I learned to speak in the last ten weeks.
The only issue was that this information was from at least five hundred years ago, and I didn't want to risk speaking a language no longer spoken today.
My tactic worked. The villager on the other side of the stall greeted me and welcomed me to the village of High Mine. His language was a rougher and slightly different version of what I had learned at the Temple, but he was definitely speaking Low Vernacular. I almost sighed in relief.
Thanks to the analysis and decoding feature of the See Beyond skill, I was able to grasp the differences between the two versions of the language more easily and could answer the questions calmly.
Upon hearing my response, the man smiled more genuinely.
"You have a northern accent! You must be from one of the cities near the capital, right? I'm good at identifying these things; I know where someone is from just by the accent. By the way, what are you doing traveling alone? It's very dangerous for a girl your age. Despite the mercenary clothes, you don't fool anyone."
I was taken aback by the man's reaction and needed a couple of seconds to think of a response.
"I was visiting some relatives in Elênis when, you know, everything happened, and I ended up isolated for a while. Now I'm trying to get back to my city up north."
My answer was more truthful than it seemed. My parents' house was indeed in Elênis, a neighboor kingdom of Ceratris, and I had been visiting them until the world fusion happened and I got trapped inside the protections around Astar. And the city I actually used to live in was farther north from where we were.
"What bad luck! Weren't you warned in Elênis that the world union would happen? Around here, the priestesses of the goddess Creta told us great changes were coming and we should prepare" he said, gesturing with his thumb toward the church at the end of the street.
It was, indeed, the most elaborate building in the place, and the only one made of masonry. The walls were light-colored, and a lawn with white flowers adorned the entrance.
"My relatives' house is a bit remote; not many news reach there. So, if there was any kind of warning, it didn't get to us." I looked back at the man who was staring at my face with a certain fascination.
'He thinks I'm a citizen of Ceratris, doesn't he? Why is he staring at me like that, as if I were a being from another world?'
[Activating skill "See Beyond".
Responding to player's question…
Answer: Available information is insufficient to determine the reason.]
'I wasn't expecting an answer.'
"Have you seen people from the other world around here?" I asked.
"You won't believe it! It must have been over two months now. Some of them came here to the village. They were traveling in a magical artifact that moved by itself. Not even the mages in the capital must dream of something like that. It was shiny, had some strange wheels, and you couldn't see inside. It looked more like a giant bug than a carriage. And it made a strange noise too. I've never been so scared in my life, nor so relieved when they left."
I was surprised by how much and how quickly that man managed to speak all at once.
"And what were they like? These people?" I wondered if, by coincidence, it could have been someone I knew.
"Only one man got out of the artifact. He wore strange black glasses, and you couldn't see his face properly. He wore strange clothes and carried a weird weapon in his hand. He pointed the weapon at all of us here, even at the children! I thought he'd kill everyone! He said something in a language I'd never heard before, then got back into the magical artifact and left. It was lucky we all managed to survive."
"Stop scaring the girl, Cleus!" A woman who appeared to be about forty years old, with reddish skin and blonde hair tied up in a cloth on her head, slapped the shoulder of the man talking to me. She was behind the stall next to his and, therefore, had managed to hear our entire conversation. "Don't pay him any mind, dear. We're not sure if that thing was really a weapon."
"It was definitely a weapon!" Cleus retorted to the woman. Then he looked at me again. "That's why you shouldn't travel alone; besides beastials and bandits, there are now unknown dangers that came from the other world."
"Are you really traveling alone? I have to agree with him on that. That's very dangerous!" the woman looked at me seriously. "Why don't you travel with mercenaries? A couple of them arrived here in the village earlier today; I think they'll spend the night at Neidi's inn."
"Maria, you don't really think mercenaries are a good idea, do you? Look at the girl!" Cleus exclaimed, gesturing in my direction.
"I know, but hiring mercenaries must still be better than traveling alone!" Maria argued.
"Excuse me, but I'm without any money at the moment" I said, taking a handful of coins in cents from my coat pocket. "I found these coins before coming here. I think it's money from the other world. Do you think it's good for anything?"
It wasn't exactly a lie. I had, technically, found the coins before leaving for the village. At home, after I had intentionally looked for them.
"Let me see" Cleus took the coins from my hand. "Definitely not tiélvians, maybe they really are coins from the other world. It's best to check at the Hero's Smithy; he might even pay you for them."
"Wait!" said a man dressed in a slightly more elaborate attire with closed shoes, who was with the wagon next to the wooden stalls and probably for that reason had managed to hear our conversation. "Can I take a look?"
Cleus handed the coins back to me as the man from the wagon approached.
"Sure" I showed him the coins.
"Yes!" he said, his eyes shining. "These coins are definitely from the other world! Look at the size, the details, the writing, the material! It's different from anything we have here on the continent. And look at this figure!" he said, showing me one of the 50-cent coins. "It's a human! He looks like a noble. Perhaps it's their king?"
I looked closely at the man with the carved mustache on the coin. I didn't remember his name, but I had read somewhere that he had been a minister. Maybe he had even been a noble. And who was the person on the five-cent coin right next to it? Wasn't it Tiradentes, the revolutionary leader hanged by order of the Portuguese crown? These people weren't kings.
And, probably, I was one of the few people who knew these curiosities, since I majored in history. The chances of finding a Brazilian who could name each of the figures present on the coins were very small. Those images had lost meaning over time. Some perhaps never meant anything at all.
"Is that so? I don't know about that" I replied to the merchant.
"Yeah, you wouldn't have a way of knowing" he said. "I'm willing to buy them from you! How many do you have? I want all of them! I'll pay you up to four nickel tiélvians."
I looked at the coins in my hand. Three were fifty cents, two were twenty-five cents, and two were five cents.
"There are seven coins; don't you think it would be fair to get at least one nickel tiélviam for each?" I wasn't sure if the market value was still the same as five hundred years ago, but the nickel tiélviam was the lowest-value coin in the entire Continent of Salvation, and you could buy at most a small loaf of bread with one. Not that the coins I carried with me were worth much, but I wanted to avoid coming out at a loss.
"Hmm..." he scratched his chin. "Five nickel tiélvians, then, because you're a pretty girl!"
I frowned.
"We don't know the value of these coins or if they'll ever be useful. I'm already offering you much more than any other merchant would offer" he said.
"Alright!" I conceded. "But I want one of those too!" I pointed to a stack of papers that seemed to be a kind of one-page newspaper.
The merchant sighed.
"Alright, alright! Here are the 5 nickel tiélvians and a bulletin for the pretty girl!" He dropped the five coins, slightly larger than the ones I was used to, into my hand and handed me one of the sheets from the stack of papers.
"Actually, there's one more thing that might interest you" I said, taking a basic healing potion from the Infinite Inventory Bag at my waist, in a way that my coat hid the action in order to avoid them thinking I was making things materialize out of thin air.
"Is that a healing potion?" the merchant asked. "How did you get that?"
"My family deals with these things" I replied as the merchant examined the vial. He nodded as if what I just said made perfect sense.
"You're full of surprises!" Cleus exclaimed with a smile. I felt embarrassed.
"So, are you interested?" I asked the merchant from the wagon.
"I need to test the quality first" he said, opening the vial and dripping a few drops of the potion into a container that looked like a small silver metal cup. The merchant sought better sunlight to observe the content. "Impressive! It has excellent consistency and seems to be very well refined. It has the ideal color, not too yellowish, nor too dark. It's also not too clear. This means it has high efficacy and doesn't have a concentration so strong it's toxic. The quality is superior to the apothecary's potions here in High Mine. The vial is also well sealed and of high quality, which increases the potion's shelf life and prevents contamination."
"You seem to know quite a bit about the subject" I commented, truly impressed. Everything he said was correct.
"A good merchant needs to know at least that much!" he said proudly.
"The quality is better than the apothecary's potions?" Maria asked, coming out from behind her stall and coming to my side to peek at the potion. She wasn't the only one to do so. Cleus and a few other villagers also approached.
"Much superior!" the merchant replied. "I've only seen potions of this nature in the capital and large cities."
Everyone seemed impressed. I wondered if perhaps it had been a mistake to try to negotiate the potion, since I was drawing too much attention. But now there was no turning back, so it was better to take advantage of the situation.
"How much are you willing to pay for it?" I asked the merchant.
I waited for the answer anxiously. I hoped to get at least a handful of bronze coins.
In the monetary system of the Continent of Salvation, there were five types of coins. The lowest-value coin was the nickel tiélviam, and ten of them were needed to equal a single bronze coin.
Next, fifteen bronze coins equaled one silver coin, and thirty silver tiélvians were needed to reach the value of one gold coin. Finally, one platinum tiélviam, the highest-value coin on the continent, was worth the same as ten gold coins.
That is:
1 bronze tiélviam = 10 nickel tiélvians
1 silver tiélviam = 15 bronze tiélvians
1 gold tiélviam = 30 silver tiélvians
1 platinum tiélviam = 10 gold tiélvians
"Six bronze" the merchant replied. If that was his first offer, it meant the market value was possibly much higher.
"How much does a potion from the local apothecary cost?" I asked Maria, who was beside me.
"Depending, between 5 to 6 bronze tiélvians" she answered me.
I looked at the merchant before me.
"As you said yourself, my potion is of high quality. Quality far superior to the apothecary's potions here."
"Seven bronze, then. A fair price" he made the number 7 sign with his hands.
"Eight" I said, crossing my arms.
"That's a very high price! I'll have to resell it later, and it will be hard to find someone willing to pay that price."
"You should be able to find someone willing to pay over a silver tiélviam in one of the large cities or the capital" I countered.
He lowered his head, huffed, looked at me again, and then replied.
"Seven bronze and five nickel. It's the maximum price I can pay."
I thought for a moment. Considering I could make more whenever I wanted and that I was in a hurry to get money, it wasn't such a bad deal for me. It wasn't bad even if he was trying to take advantage of me and offering a price below fair value, which I had no idea if was the case or not since I didn't know the market value of a healing potion of that quality.
"Alright, deal!" I accepted the offer and stretched out my hands in front of me, cupped. The merchant placed the twelve coins on them, one by one.
"You have a talent for being a merchant, I have to admit" the merchant said.
"You're smarter than you look!" Maria smiled at me and gave my shoulder a little pat. "It's hard to negotiate anything with this penny-pincher."
I was uncertain if it was a compliment or an insult. So I didn't look smart?
I thanked her anyway and asked about the Hero's Smithy that had been mentioned before.
My next mission was to get some equipment.