Chapter 21 – Finding a way.

Roland was sitting down on a bench outside a certain building. This was the fifth he had visited today and the sun was already setting. He had gone through the city while trying to find himself a place to work. The first place wanted to make him sign a six-year contract that felt more like a scam than anything else.

He decided to continue with his search but what he found later was quite shocking. The first contract given was on the better side, the other places wanted to keep him there for longer. The terms were similar and the pay varied. Some wanted him to make a certain number of scrolls each day. Others wanted him to work for a fixed amount of hours for the entire week, he wouldn’t even have days off.

‘I made a big mistake…’

He thought that a big city like this would have many opportunities. He was sure that he would find something sooner or later, the reality was different. The store owners were all in cahoots, they made it hard for any new talent to get a good start. A new scribe wouldn’t be able to earn any money at all. The prices of the materials were set so that only intermediate level spell scrolls would actually bring in profit. He didn’t even know if they would buy scrolls from a third party like him or if they gave them a fair price, probably not.

Roland was now thinking that a smaller town might have been a better choice. They would probably offer him a less binding contract, one without a curse. The curse was also one that lowered your mana by 60% until the contract time ran out. For a mage, something like that would be crippling. Losing more than half of your mana pool would halt your progress dramatically.

His plan was to work as a scribe for a year or so. With his experience gaining trick he had reason to believe that he could reach l25 of this class by then. He figured that getting enough money for a class change crystal wouldn’t be that hard, he even had enough right now. The reality was different though, no one from the established shops would let him test his skills in their shops for free. He would need to pay up in close to slave labor.

He had assumed too much. He thought that a mage class was a rare commodity. He thought that when the store owners heard that he was a mana scribe they would spread their arms wide and invite him in, no questions asked. He had underestimated how businesses operated here and that they already had a system in place.

Most of the scribes were kids from the magic academies. These academies were able to get better contracts for their students that were only working to level up and gain new skills for their future. If you were a solo act the contracts were much harsher as they didn’t really care about you as a worker. Why would they if they got cheap labor from the magic academies instead?

‘What are my other options besides signing one of those contracts?’

The youth looked out into the distance, the horizon was all red as the sun was setting. He could even see some priests from the Sun Church praising the sun and doing some strange pose with their arms outstretched into the air.

He could take the contract and work hard for those five or six years. He would probably gain a lot of experience through scribing and reach max level. He could hold out on using the schematics trick until he got to the blacksmith class if it showed promise. The problem was that he wouldn’t really be able to focus on his smithing work. Some of the contracts even forbade part-time work at other places. He also feared that the smithing workshops could have similar agreements.

Another option was leaving this city and finding one without that many scribes. Maybe in a place where his class was rare, the shop owners would be more lenient. Still, he had no idea if they wouldn’t just give him similar contracts or where a city like that existed. He also considered moving to a city with a dungeon and just doing scribe work on the side. That option would probably slow his leveling down as crafting classes gained less experience by slaying monsters.

‘Is there a place I can sell my items in here?’

Roland had access to his debugging skill, so he could probably upgrade those runic spell scrolls to the highest rating. He thought back to the prices those went for and they overshadowed the regular spell scrolls. The problem was that no one was willing to buy them if they could get something cheaper in bulk that wasn’t that much worse.

How much better were the highest versions of those runic spells? Was the biggest question, if he managed to get that fire arrow spell to be a lot more powerful than the competitions, he might be able to somehow do it. The construction materials weren’t that costly, maybe if he bundled them ten apiece he could manage to scrape by.

There was another problem besides that, how would he explain that a boy of not even eleven was selling and producing runic spell scrolls at the highest rank? Would the people try to get his secrets, would they get violent? He wasn’t sure how the businessmen around here reacted to the unwanted competition. He didn’t think he would affect their bottom line with some scrolls so he mostly thought it would be safe in that regard.

Was there a place that he could sell his stuff without attracting attention? While still earning enough to get by and while leveling up. He didn’t think there was such a convenient place in the regular stores or shops. Should he try peddling it out in the market while hiding his face behind his robe hood?

He remembered that there was one type of place that he could sell items like that. Such a place was an auction house. He could probably remain somewhat anonymous, the auction houses probably kept the sellers’ names secret. This was probably one of the better options out on the table.

‘I should head back to the inn, I’ll try to scribe some regular spells first, I’ll think about it later.’

He had enough for today, he couldn’t make up his mind and the sun had already gone down. He could still work for an hour or two on his scroll making, then at least this day wouldn’t be a total waste.

Roland hopped down from the bench he was sitting on. It was nicely made from some kind of metal, probably fashioned in place by some kind of smith or artisan. He took out an apple from his storage bag and bit into it. It was nice and sweet and worth the coin that he paid for it.

He wasn’t in a hurry as he just walked forward. He looked at the people going back and forth, in the middle of the road there were horse carriages passing by, some of them were even pulled by some large ox looking, creatures. The people chatted with each other and they looked to be going to the taverns for some alcohol.

‘People in this world sure like to drink.’

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He attributed this feature to them not having any TV or internet here. There weren’t that many places for people to spend their free time. There were some theaters but those were mostly occupied by the rich merchants and nobles while the commoners liked louder places like casinos or the aforementioned taverns. There was also the red light district where men liked to spend their coins on the various ladies of the diverse races.

Before his mind could wander to strange places he got brought back into reality. He heard someone ringing a loud bell and this person wasn’t part of the Sun Church.

After glancing towards the direction of the noise he noticed quite the curvy elf lady. She wasn’t the same one that he saw last time and she was even more beautiful. She was clearly dressed to show off and to pull in the attention of the crowds. She had something akin to those Chinese dresses with a lot of leg space. She was ringing that bell in front of a large gate, above it a picture of a scale.

“Gather up good people of Edelgard, the Libra Auction house will be opening in half an hour, be sure to bring your purses as we will be having a grand auction today!”