DMS Chapter 52

Oatwheel Town was twice the size of Berdol Town. Even though everyone considered towns and villages in these parts as the hicks with low population, Flinx found it lively. There seemed to be a lot of people looking forward to the wares that the merchants from the caravan would be selling.

Flinx thought that the caravan journey was straightforward. They came from Ilioven, headed to Beldor Town, which was the last town in their route, and then returned to Ilioven, passing through the towns and villages that they passed through before, but Camryn told him that the caravan route was shaped like the letter U. Basically, they would pass through the towns and villages along their route just once. That route allowed the caravan to reach a lot more places.

The caravan went to the place that was assigned to them by the townsfolk and set up their merchandise there. Flinx helped Camryn and Oliman in setting up their wares, and after that, helped Rendra and her family with theirs.

After everything was set up, the citizens of Oatwheel town entered the site in an orderly manner. The activity looked to be so much fun that Flinx had an urge to set up wares too. He could purchase some things from his System Shopping site and sell them to people. He would choose things not normal for the people in this world and shock them. That was an entertaining thought, but Flinx would not go through with it. He did not need the coins and knew that once the novelty of being a merchant in another world wore off, it would become bothersome to him.

Flinx asked Rendra if he could experiment with her wares using magic.

“What kind of magic?” The merchant woman asked.

“I want to check if using the Illusion Magic to make your wares more beautiful would entice a lot more people to purchase your wares. Of course, to avoid accusations of cheating, we would be open about it.”

He already thought of what illusions he would use and decided a simple one would be best. He would cast the Minor Illusion spell so that appropriate neon lights would light up Rendra’s wares. After he cast the spell, Rendra’s pieces of jewelry glittered, reflecting the colorful lights that came from the Minor Illusion spell. Her scarves, handkerchiefs, purses, fans, and hats’ colors became more vivid. The women’s clothing colors stood out because of the different colored lights from the Minor Illusion spells.

The spell attracted the attention of the people of Oatwheel town, and they started congregating on Rendra’s tables. Most of those prospective customers were young women, and soon, they started haggling with Rendra. Flinx stayed with the merchant woman and renewed the spell every time it lapsed.

After a couple of hours, Flinx told Rendra that he would leave to explore the town, and the merchant woman just nodded, busy with haggling with her customers.

Flinx was wearing a black t-shirt, a brown leather jacket, jeans, and brown shoes. When one inspected his clothing closely, one would find some peculiarities, since they were made using modern tools from Earth. Still, they were nondescript enough that they should not grab any attention from the locals. Even if the locals started looking at him because of his clothing, since he was a magic caster, people would just shrug it off as one of the peculiarities a wizard usually has.

He just walked on the sidewalk to start exploring the town. Flinx was sure that he would not get lost because the roads seemed to be straightforward. Besides, even if he got lost, he would just ask the townspeople, and they would guide him back. He could even use his familiar to search for the caravan.

The road inside the town was the same as the one in Beldor town, which was cobblestone. The houses were the same as well, but Flinx could see that this town seemed a little richer than Berdol town. The houses were taller. Back in Beldor town, the houses were just two stories tall, aside from the Adventurer Guild and the Mayor’s mansion. Here, one could even see three-story houses everywhere. Beldor Town was cleaner, though, but Flinx thought that it was because Oatwheel Town was larger.

Flinx also noticed that the people were not as close to each other as the people in Beldor Town. He assumed that it would get worse the nearer the caravan reached Ilioven, the capital city of the kingdom of Ilinestor. It was understandable since the Beldor Town townsfolk had to rely on each other against monster attacks from the forest.

He arrived at what looked like a park, and it was filled with children playing. Flinx felt a little relieved upon seeing such a view since, as a fantasy medieval world, he expected that children would start working early in life to help out in making sure that everyone in the family was fed. He only watched the kids playing for a couple of minutes, then he moved on. There was nothing else noteworthy in that park. There were not even flowers there, just trees.

Flinx kept on walking and finally arrived at what looked like the town’s business center. He entered a large shop and found out that it was one of the town’s general goods stores. He was a little impressed at the amount and variety that was being sold in the store. He saw a beautiful lantern and purchased it together with a liter of lantern oil. There was no other item that he was tempted to buy. If he were being honest, he could probably find the same kind of lantern and oil in his System Shopping Site, but he decided to spend some gold coins to experience buying things from the local stores. He then thought of a good idea. Since he had started cooking, he thought that he should purchase groceries locally using his gold coins instead of spending his money inside the System Shopping Site.

Flinx knew that he should be able to purchase some of the ingredients locally for cheaper, like meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, flour, milk, cream, butter, and anything that he could find. He did not have to worry about where to put them since his 4^th tab space was huge. After paying for the new lantern, he asked the merchant for directions to the market where he could find foodstuffs like meat and vegetables, and the man just told him to keep heading northward while staying on the road.

After a few minutes of walking, Flinx found the market. He started purchasing a huge amount of stuff that he could use for cooking. He surreptitiously stored the things that he was buying a little at a time in his 4^th tab space. He even found some fish for sale, and according to the merchant, they were from a lake near the town. All in all, he spent a total of 10 gold coins, and that included the lantern and lantern oil that he purchased.

Based on the amount that he bought, if he purchased them in his System Shopping Site, he would have probably spent 1,000 dollars for everything. Of course, he still needed to buy things from his System Store, like spices and cooking oil. If he cooked everything that he purchased, it would probably last him three or four months.

Since there was probably nothing more interesting inside the town of Oatwheel, Flinx decided to spend the time they stayed here cooking.