After I ate breakfast, I left the inn. As I headed over to where the stagecoach would be stopped, I checked on the fee and departure time. The fee seemed to be 1 gold coin, and it would take around four days to get to Kiels. There was still time until the coach was set to depart, so in the meantime I went to prepare four days’ worth of food and a weapon just in case something went wrong.
Of course, using Online Supermarket in front of people would be a bad idea, and in the case that Item Box is a rare skill, there could be a chance of an uproar so I probably shouldn’t use that either.
I bought a waterskin, jerky, black bread, as well as a slightly large knife.
With this, I was ready. All that was left was to ride the stagecoach and get away from this capital. Other than me, there was a middle-aged peddler, a young married couple and their two children, and a woman in her mid-30’s riding this stagecoach. There was also a party of four adventurers guarding the coach.
From when we departed, I started talking a little with the peddler who was sitting next to me.
“Are you going to Kiels to sell something?” I started off with harmless small talk.
“Yeah, I managed to get some soap from a certain source, you see. I was thinking of getting a firm I know in Kiels to buy it off me.” Oh, soap, is it? So this world has it too.
So, after a lengthy discussion, I learned that apparently soap does exist, but it was something only nobles use. When selling to a noble, a bar of soap went for around 3 silver coins.
When I tried to indirectly bring up the subject of Item Boxes, I learned that nobles and large trading companies would hire people with the skill. It was said that people with the Item Box skill are about 1 in 1000, but it seems the size of it depends on the person’s MP, so if one didn’t have at least a fairly large Item Box they wouldn’t be able to get hired by said nobles or companies.
“No matter how small your box is, it should be at least three times bigger than what I can carry with this wooden backrack that I have, so from my point of view anyone with an Item Box is someone to be jealous of.” Saying that, the peddler laughed.
I see, so the Item Box skill does exist among people, even if it’s rare. As long as I pretend that my Item Box’s capacity is small, it should be fine to use, I thought.
“If I was to become a merchant, having the Appraisal skill would be a great boon, wouldn’t it?” I was able to ask about Item Boxes, so I tried bringing up Appraisal in the same way.
“Ahh, that’s something every merchant dreams of. But that’s something that only summoned heroes from another world who only exist in fairy tales can use. Although I do think that it’s not Heroes who should have the skill, but merchants. Appraisal, it’s the dream of any merchant, no? Even without the Appraisal skill, it would be nice if the Appraisal tool becomes more widely available. People find them sometimes in ancient ruins, but they’re so expensive your eyes’ll pop out of your head, so only countries or guilds are able to obtain them.”
Whew, that was close. I couldn’t help but sigh in relief in my head. So Appraisal is something only summoned heroes have, and magic tools with Appraisal also exist. But they’re so expensive that it’s impossible to own one privately. It seems they only rarely come out of ancient ruins (or in other words, highly difficult dungeons), so of course there wouldn’t be a lot of them.
It was good that I asked. So now I know that there’s basically no chance that I would ever get appraised.
While we talked about this and that, I eventually found out that the peddler was also aiming to cross the border. He leaned over and told me a secret in a whisper.
“This country’s become pretty suspicious lately, you know? It would have been out of the question if I had a family, but luckily I’m single, so I’m thinking of getting out of this country early. There’s rumors that they might close their borders soon, after all.” Closing their borders? I thought, this country is dangerous as all heck. It’s a good thing that I gave up on this country early and decided to move.
On the way to Kiels, monsters like goblins and wolves appeared (as I would expect from a fantasy world of swords and magic, monsters do exist here), but the adventurers guarding us defeated them without trouble, so the ride went smoothly.