Chapter 42: Market
Blackstone Village – Several Days Later
Blackstone Village had become far livelier than before. Villagers from the other settlements now came and went almost every day, turning the once quiet village into the center of the entire region.
The biggest reason was Archie. Since Archie considered it “peak inefficiency” to personally travel across all eight villages just to supervise every renovation project, he instead ordered each chief to send representatives to Blackstone.
There, Archie and Blackstone’s veteran builders would teach them everything at once before only visiting later during crucial stages of construction.
Of course, Archie had been very clear about one thing. Every village was to send only their brightest people.
“Send me idiots,” Archie had declared during the council meeting, “and I promise your walls will be the last ones I build.”
Naturally, nobody dared test whether he was bluffing.
The chiefs also regularly sent people to learn how to live a “miasma-free” life. Things like keeping waste away from living areas, bathing regularly, and preparing food and water hygienically. The story about invisible miasma causing sickness had spread through the villages like wildfire over the past few weeks.
But not everyone came for village matters. Some also came for themselves. Whenever they finished work early, people began gathering around Blackstone’s village square and tried their hand at trading.
Even though the official salt currency system was still being discussed by the chiefs council—mainly because nobody could agree how much anything was actually worth—people had already started experimenting on their own. Some used salt. Others mixed it with direct barter. Most simply made up prices as they pleased and argued afterward.
Some sold excess meat from hunts. Others sold old scavenged loot they no longer needed. Weapons, pelts, rusty trinkets, monster parts, anything that could be traded for a little profit.
And naturally, everyone chose Blackstone as the trading spot. After all, the village sat almost perfectly in the middle of the other settlements.
But since all this trading happened purely from personal initiative, with absolutely no regulation behind it, the prices were essentially decided by whatever mood the seller happened to be in that day.
And Erika, knew very well how to influence a man’s moods.
“Kind sir,” Erika spoke softly while holding a small health potion with both hands, her expression troubled and delicate, “this potion vial looks so pretty… how much is it?”
Across from her stood one of the peddlers in the village square, a muscular young man from another settlement.
“Ah… uh…” the peddler stammered immediately, his face already turning red. “T-twenty ladles of salt?”
Erika’s eyes widened in shock. Then, with terrifying precision, a single tear rolled down her cheek.
“Ah… I-I only have one ladle of salt…” she said weakly, sounding moments away from crying.
Then she turned away dramatically.
“I’m sorry, kind sir… for wasting your time…”
Several sparkling tears even flew dramatically behind her when she turned, practically catching sunlight like tiny rainbows.
“Ah—w-wait, miss!” the peddler panicked, one hand reaching toward her. “Y-you can have it for one ladle!”
Erika immediately stopped.
When she turned back around, she now wore an embarrassed little smile, her cheeks slightly red while tears still lingered beautifully at the corner of her eyes.
“A-are you sure?” she asked softly.
“Uh… I mean…”
The muscular peddler looked away nervously, unable to meet her eyes as he awkwardly played with his fingers.
“I’ve been seeing you around these past few days… I really wanted to talk to you, but I’m terrible at this kinda thing… You’re Chief Tara’s daughter while I’m just some nobody…”
He lowered his head further, gathering his courage.
“And today… you talked to me first… so it just made me really hap—”
“But I actually wanted to save half a ladle for cooking ingredients for my mother,” Erika interrupted quickly while grabbing his hand with both of hers. “Would half a ladle be alright?”
The poor man’s head practically started steaming on the spot.
“S-s-s-s-s-sure!”
From across the square, Theo and Greta watched the entire thing with equally unimpressed expressions.
“How long has she been doing this?” Theo asked.
“Several days now,” Greta replied with her arms folded. “The first couple days, she just wandered around spreading her charm while screening which peddlers stared at her the most.”
Greta casually pick her nose.
“Once she picks a target, she waits until the others ain’t looking and pounces like just now.” She said while flicking her finger.
“Is that so,” Theo muttered.
He watched Erika happily walking away with another heavily discounted item.
“Did she even need that stuff?”
“Not at all,” Greta replied flatly. “Sis Tara’s tent already had enough potions and whatever things Erika ‘purchase’ recently. She’s just doing it for the game. Lots of new faces, plenty of prey options.”
“Impressive,” Theo repeated while rubbing his chin. “But she’s going to collapse the economy single-handedly before the economy even started. This needs to stop.”
“I don’t understand half of what you just said,” Greta muttered, “but I agree.”
Then suddenly, a young messenger girl came running toward them.
“Vice-Chief!” she shouted.
She stopped in front of Theo and Greta before quickly saluting both of them.
“We got a patient who just died.”
“Oh?” Theo muttered.
A small smile appeared on his face.
“Finally.”
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Blackstone Hospital/Morgue
Blackstone’s open hospital had gradually started looking more and more like a proper field hospital. Several patient beds were now placed outside beneath large shades, while villagers carrying water, herbs, and cloth moved constantly between them.
Since Blackstone possessed far more salt than the other settlements, it had also become the place most capable of treating serious injuries.
The usual patients were hunters who picked fights with monsters larger than themselves, soldiers wounded dealing with creatures wandering too close to settlements, or the usual friendly drunk arguments between friends that somehow escalated into a friendly knife wounds.
For Theo, however, this situation had another benefit. Whenever someone died, he could reach the body within minutes whenever he needed a vessel for summoning.
Just like now.
Inside the closed morgue tent, Theo stood quietly beside a corpse laid atop a rug.
The dead man appeared middle-aged, with messy hair and an uneven beard that made it obvious grooming had never been high on his priority list.
“They said he was a hunter from one of the forest villages,” Greta said.
She was standing beside Theo with folded hands.
“Ran into a cockatrice during a hunt. Him and his buddies managed to kill it, but he got badly wounded in the process.” She continued, “They brought him here two days ago, but I guess the wound was just too deep.”
Theo quietly stared at the corpse before opening his status window.
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[ BRANCH : 🏛️ GOVERNANCE ]
"Rule with those who once shaped nations."
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[ ERA : AGE OF ORIGINS ]
[ AVAILABLE ASSETS ]
→ Solon
Role : Lawmaker
Specialty : Stability increase, reform systems
Information : He who reshaped a broken city by convincing the powerful
Requirement : Lv. 3
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“Alright, Solon…” Theo muttered to himself. “Archie said you stopped Athens from tearing itself apart. Now please do the same before this place goes bankrupt.”
He pressed Solon’s tab.
Immediately, the familiar purple glow spread across his hand.
“Think this one gonna be another lunatic like Archie?” Greta asked.
“At this point, I honestly don’t care anymore,” Theo replied tiredly. “As long as he can quickly give us some stability, I’ll gladly sacrifice my sleep schedule again.”
Then he placed his glowing hand onto the dead hunter’s chest.
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[ CONDITION MET ]
Post-Mortem Vessel Ready
Brain Status : Functional
Time Since Death : 00:05:01
Body Integrity: 78% (Repairable)
ASSESSMENT : Use Before Further Decay
EXECUTE: [ Y / N ]
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“It’s good enough,” Theo muttered.
Then he glanced toward Greta.
“Oh right, did he leave behind any family we need to notify?”
“Not really,” Greta replied. “It was just his hunting buddies that brought him here, no one ever visit.”
“Alright then,” Theo said casually. “Nothing to worry about.”
And without further hesitation, he pressed the Y button. Immediately, the dead hunter’s body began glowing with purple light before the glow gradually faded away again.
Even though this was already the third time Theo had done this, his heart still raced a little every time the process started.
David had practically jumped straight to his feet the instant he revived, Archie somehow woke up already angry. So naturally, Theo was bracing himself for whatever insanity came next.
Theo and Greta waited nervously beside the corpse. A few moments later, the hunter’s chest finally began rising and falling again as breathing returned to the body.
Then they waited for him to wake up.
“…”
Nothing happened. The man simply kept breathing peacefully.
“Uh… Sir Solon?” Theo asked carefully. “Are you there?”
Finally, a reaction came. His eyes slowly opened.
Then, with absolutely no sense of urgency whatsoever, the man lazily raised himself into a sitting position. The entire thing felt so undramatic that it almost became awkward to watch.
Still sitting there half-awake, Solon began scratching his cheek and slowly looked around the tent instead, observing the rugs, the tools, the stitching on the canvas, and every little detail nearby with sleepy disinterest.
“Uh… Sir Solon?” Theo tried again.
Solon finally turned his head while still scratching his cheek. His eyes slowly moved across Greta first, carefully looking at her up and down long enough to make her feel uncomfortable.
Then his gaze moved again and stopped directly when seeing Theo’s face.
They both stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds.
And then—
“Siiiiiigh…”
Solon slowly looked away again before releasing a long, exhausted sigh filled with visible half-disgust.
As if Theo’s face is a mountain of paperwork waiting on a salaryman desk in Monday morning.