Chapter 221: Haggle

Chapter 221: Haggle

Towering buildings rose up all along the main street, casting the white cobble in shade even though the sun was nearly directly overhead. Dawnforge was the closest thing to a city on Earth that Noah had seen since he’d gotten to Arbitage.

Everything was dense and tightly packed together, and even the shortest structures around them were at least three stories. It felt like the architects had gotten fed up with the size of the city and had just decided to build straight upward instead of expanding in any other direction.

Of course, according to Moxie, there was a massive forge somewhere beneath the city, so it wasn’t like they could have built downward if they wanted to.

The streets were densely packed with an interesting mixture of people. The vast majority of them looked to be adventurers – grizzled, confident, and bearing their weapons openly. Many of them had Imbuements covering their armor, and more than a few had splatters of blood or recent battle damage on their gear.

The remainder of the passersby felt like they’d fit in better in a posh castle or a room far beneath the earth. They either carried no weapon or carried a dagger so small that it probably wasn’t going to do much more than slice bread.

Neither group seemed to pay the other much mind, and everyone moved at a hurried pace toward whatever it was that they were doing. The streets themselves weren’t completely packed full, but they were too busy to stop and stare for too long – which was exactly what Lee kept trying to do.

“Don’t stop in the middle of the street, Lee,” Moxie said, grabbing Lee by the sleeve of her shirt and pulling her along as she ground to a halt to eye a man pulling a huge cart of fish along the road.

“I was just thinking about helping him.”

“By eating the fish to lighten his load?” Noah asked with an amused raise of his eyebrow.

“How’d you know?”

“Maybe he got Revin’s All-Seeing Eye,” Moxie joked. The three of them continued down the street, Moxie at the lead. She seemed to have a plan as to where they were headed, and Noah was more than content to let her lead while he just took in the city around him. “We can stop to look around the city some other time, Lee. There’s no rush. It isn’t going anywhere.”

“I always wondered about that, actually. Why are your cities still?” Lee asked.

Noah tore his gaze away from a skyscraper made entirely of polished stone to look down at Lee. “What?”

“You know. Cities should be able to move if there’s a really big threat.”

“I’m not sure what your definition of a city is, but they generally don’t tend to move too much,” Moxie said. “Is it different in... well, you know. Where you came from?”

Lee nodded. “They aren’t exactly cities. Most of us generally don’t live that well together, but there are occasionally reasons why we’d trade or otherwise gather. They’re very lightly enforced neutral grounds where gatherings are slightly less deadly than normal. They move around.”

“How?” Noah asked.

“With their legs,” Lee replied, as if that were the most obvious answer in the world.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñòv€l-B1n.

Noah opened his mouth, then closed it. If he started quizzing Lee on exactly what the Damned Plains was like and why her cities had legs, then someone would overhear their discussion and that would probably lead nowhere good.

“You’ll have to tell me more about that later,” Noah said.

Before he could say anything else, Moxie stopped by a large, four story building. Its stone walls supported a large wooden roof that jutted out in every direction around it. If they’d actually needed any extra shade, it would have been great. Carved wooden stilts propped parts of the building up, and it was hard to tell if they were there for decoration or function. Noah sincerely hoped they were the former because they didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the building’s structural integrity.

“Here,” Moxie said, stepping off the road and walking up to the open doorway. “I nearly missed it. It’s been a while since I last visited.”

“You have brought quite the haul,” Thaddius said with a wide smile. “I can see why you had fears – but much of this will only be usable in specific circumstances, and only to the right people. I will have difficulty selling it for a high price.”

“Before you start the haggling, I also have this.” Moxie took out the poison sac from the spider Noah had frozen and set it gently on the table before Thaddius. The merchant’s eyes flicked down to it, and Noah saw a flash of greed within them.

“One more thing, actually,” Noah said, reaching into his own bag and pulling out the faint glowing horn. He’d been carrying it around a while, and it certainly felt like something that would earn at least a little bit of coin.

Thaddius barely even looked up as Noah set it on the table. His eyes were fixed on the poison sac.

“Was it properly removed?”

“Yes. Frozen too.”

“For preservation? Wise,” Thaddius murmured.

Not exactly planned, but I’ll take credit for it.

“So?” Moxie pressed. “How much? And keep in mind you aren’t the only merchant my family knows, Thaddius. You get one offer. Make sure it’s good.”

Noah caught Lee staring at one of the monster hearts with a hungry look in her eyes and shot her a quick glance. Lee scrunched her nose at him in annoyance but took a step back from the table.

Thaddius carefully picked the poison sac up off the table with his tongs, closing one eye and squinting at it with the other. The tip of his tongue poked out of his mouth as he turned the sac left and right before setting it gently on the table.

“Decent,” Thaddius allowed. He looked to Noah’s horn and a small frown flickered across his wide features. “But what is this you’ve placed here, friend? I don’t recognize it.”

“Took it off a Bleater. It was an annoying little bastard. I figured it’s got to be worth a fair bit because its horn is still shining. Even if nothing else, it’ll make a pretty mantlepiece.”

“So it would,” Thaddius murmured. He studied the horn for a few more seconds. “Was this from a mutated monster?”

“It was. I assume that drives up its price?”

Thaddius grimaced. “Perhaps. Not all mutations are good. Some simply serve no purpose or can even be detrimental. I’d not pay extra for a bad part.”

“This isn’t a bad part though, is it?”

The merchant shot a glance at Moxie, then cleared his throat. “Quite the diverse spread you’ve brought before me, little Torrin. However, I’m afraid I have an objection.”

“Oh?” Moxie raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“You said I only get one offer. That simply cannot be. I am a merchant.”

“What’s that meant to mean?”

“I must follow my nature.” A predatory grin stretched across Thaddius’ face as he held his arms out, as if reaching to envelop them in a hug. “It is time for us to haggle.”