—I see, so the pickaxe effect is what’s cutting down the rocks into cubes. They seem like they’ll fetch a higher price like that, instead of just crushing them, so that’s a plus.
I kept digging afterwards and managed to gather up twenty stone pieces with the pickaxe. The fatigue of manual work was not something I was used to. After a while, my hands started to ache from the constant shock of digging into the rocks with the pickaxe. Seeing the twenty pieces of rock made me feel a sense of accomplishment, though. But there remained another problem.
—The cabin is twenty meters away or so. It’s not that far away... But carrying twenty of these is gonna be a little...
Don’t underestimate these mere twenty meters. To carry so many pieces of stone without a wheelbarrow or a backpack of some kind was going to be painful. True to that thought, I was out of breath and sweating bullets by the time I was done carrying them. I had left the suit jacket back in the cabin, but I still felt manual labor was twice as tiring wearing formal clothes like I was.
—All right then, I hope these things actually fetch some sort of price.
Even if they didn’t fetch a good price, I could make a furnace or a workbench with them. There were a bunch of ways to use them, so there wasn’t really any loss.
I placed one of the stones inside the delivery box and closed the lid. The metallic sound didn’t take long to follow. There were several coins inside. The total amount came to 802 DL. That was quite the price compared to normal stuff like gravel and rocks. It seemed like being turned into cubes was beneficial after all.
I sold the other nineteen rocks.
The price didn’t change even if I sold two or three at the same time. The estimated value for each was always 802 DL. The total amount for the twenty of them was 16,040 DL. I would have gotten the same amount selling 150 pieces of bubblegum. The thought of that made me happy, for some reason. I couldn’t help but be concerned as I saw the mountain of coins piling up. There didn’t seem to be any sort of paper currency here.
“First, food. Then, some light. And finally, some blankets. I’ll be happy as long as I have those.”
Fortunately, it seemed like summer was right around the corner here. Despite there being a bunch of water nearby, I didn’t feel all that cold right now. It would get cold from here all the way into tomorrow morning though, so it would be nice to have at least one blanket. I also figured it’d be safe to expect that one could see the moon and stars in a nature-filled place like this, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a lantern and some candles.
I operated the translucent window and opened the catalog.
There was nothing in the eshop like magazines, games, or anything that reminded me of the civilization I came from—but it was full of fantasy-like stuff. There were cast iron swords starting from 30,000 DL. There was also a seemingly old introductory book to summoning evil spirits for 280,000 DL. I also found an “Automated Defense (Golem)” that looked like a plain piece of armor, for the special bargain price of 300,000 DL...
“Y-Yeah... There’s a lot of fantasy items, all right.”
Although, I was awfully curious about whether the book for summoning evil spirits was the real deal or not. My motivation to get it slowly dissipated when I thought about how many stone pieces I had to carry here to get the money.
—Let’s see, food... A set of “Hard-baked Barley Bread and Beef Jerky (Adult Male, Std. 5 Meal Set)” is 3,000 DL. That seems pretty reasonable, all things considered.
Preserved meals like this usually didn’t need to be cooked and could last for a long while, but 600 DL per serving was kinda high. Even if it was the cost of just one piece of stone, I needed a lot of stuff besides food, so I’d like to reduce expenses as much as possible.
“Hmm... Are there buyer reviews? It would be nice if they had impressions of the taste.”
The display switched immediately as I touched the “Review” button.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Reviewer: Manager, Labyrinth #112
- Water is a must, but the taste isn’t bad. The hard barley bread is pretty hard, but does last for a long while. That, coupled with the salty pork taste of the jerky, will really make you want some water to go with it. You can eat it as is, but it’s kind of difficult. You can get some vegetables and make a stew to make it really delicious.
Rating: ★★★★★
Reviewer: Manager’s Family, Labyrinth #48
- The meat is yummy! The meat was delicious! ♥
I definitely would eat it again~!
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Reviewer: Manager, Labyrinth #28
- the cold district sux. the climate around here makes the bread so hard i think i could break my teeth if i tried. be careful if ur in a cold place like me. u wont be able to eat it without heating it up 1st.
“They actually have buyer reviews?!”
After having lost my composure for a second, my shoulders dropped with a sigh.
—What’s with this halfway point between reality and fantasy... Oh well, it’s always convenient to get the impressions from people who have tried it if you haven’t.
In the end, I got five meals, a pitcher and cup, and a piece of animal fur, since that was cheaper than the blankets—also a lamp with oil, and about ten matches to light it up. The total for all that ended up being 15,120 DL, which meant I had used up almost all of my budget. The blanket was really pricey. I almost didn’t have enough to buy a piece fur big enough to work as a blanket. When you were in a survival setting like this, the first thing you needed to put on your list was to improve your bedding situation.
I kept putting coin after coin inside the piggy bank, but the large amount of coins made it a slow and tedious process. If you cashed in all the stuff you had at once, you’d get more high-value coins, so I resolved to try to putting it all together the next time I used the delivery box.
“Thank you for choosing us!”
There went the mysterious home delivery again. Everything I had ordered came in a single cardboard box. I wondered if that was because I ordered it all at once.
—Oh? Couldn’t I put together a makeshift blanket of sorts if I took apart this box?
I opened up Tundra again and hurriedly ordered a utility knife, and promptly used it to dismantle the box. The cardboard was a bit stiff, but you could use it as a mattress, as well as a blanket, so it was rather convenient.