The Systems Challenge

Jonas wasn't sure what Elmo expected for him to do about paying for the food. As most of the places that he looked at getting food ready to go wanted payment at the time he started gathering the food and weren't very eager to allow it with the mere promise of payment later. Which Jonas perfectly understood. It was easy to promise payment later, but that didn't always mean the payment would materialize.

Though, while he wasn't able to secure as much as they probably should get, he'd at least made a deal to get some food for some work in exchange. Meaning that he was doing some heavy lifting, Elin was helping sell the food, Patricia and Owen were helping set the food out so it was easier, and more attractive, to potential customers.

What they really needed was for Elwin to show up with the cash so they could just pack up what each of them were doing, but in general, Jonas doubted that it would be that easy. That it'd likely be at the end of the day when the stalls were being taken down, each merchant wanting to head to their homes themselves.

While it was possible that they might be able to get a discount at that time, Jonas had a feeling that it'd be unlikely to be much. That it'd be better to get the cash quickly so they'd be able to get the supplies they needed and out of the city and on their way.

For one thing, the longer they took here, the more likely it was that Stanley and his group would head to the starting dungeon and get there ahead of them. Another was that if Kim's army was in fact led by the 'kidnapped' noble children, then the less time that Jonas, Elin, and Kim spent in the city, the better.

As it was, Jonas was currently lifting boxes of produce to take to the stall, from a wagon in a nearby alley, so they could be placed out for customers to see, and it was expected that any damaged ones would be assumed to have been damaged by Jonas. Which meant he'd need to have that deducted from what he could have otherwise expected to receive. Although, on the other hand, the threshold of what was considered 'damaged' seemed rather lax. Especially with how some fruit that Jonas himself wouldn't have purchased, let alone eaten, back from the world he'd come from, were considered fine by the merchant.

For some reason, Elin seemed to shine when it came to selling the goods at the stall. Not only was she more energetic than Jonas had seen her in a while, but she almost looked like she was having the time of her life.

Patricia seemed rather bored by the task she'd been given and Owen was doing a better job than her, although both were at least working in a satisfactory manner for the merchant they were 'working' for.

While he wasn't exactly happy about the way things were going for him, he could think of several ways it could be worse. So, he couldn't think of a reason to complain about the circumstances he was in. Aside from Elwin having put him there that is. Not that it would do him any good at this time anyway. Not when it wouldn't change his current circumstances.