It's already been a week since Tetsuya got a spot in the merchant's carriage.
Since he has been leveraging someone, Tetsuya hasn't said no to simple requests such as branch gathering for bonfire or lending a hand when it came to unpacking stuff.
The merchant also turned out to be a great guy who didn't particularly care about status during the journey. He spoke with everyone merrily and shared drinks even with Tetsuya.
Even if it took something for Tetsuya to enter this merchant's journey, the first impression and meeting were always the hardest to overcome.
Now that everyone was part of his team, the merchant called Broney happily associated with his people. His daughter was always with him and supported him, but also kept an eye on everyone while keeping herself sober.
The guard leader was also similar and it was clear to an naked eye that these two have been working together for a while already.
"Here's a drink." The merchant's daughter approached Tetsuya and passed him a drink nonchalantly.
"Thanks." Tetsuya answered casually as well, but he smiled bitterly as the lady just turned around afterwards.
His looks didn't even give him a chance to approach the lady and she herself was not interested in swordsmanship. There was nothing that would interest her and Tetsuya ended up without a woman except for Ashley.
Nonetheless, his partner was in soul form which was vulnerable.
"Haha! Maybe you should treat this as a challenge?" Ashley smugly smiled from within, "Make this merchant woman warm your bed and finally relieve yourself after two years! I even felt a little bad for you now that I know how important and good it is."
"You don't exactly know how good and important it is, Ashley." Tetsuya smirked. He was feeling glad to have such an open-minded partner and treasured Ashley even more.
But what could she do other than saying words that her loved one wanted to hear or talk about?
Tetsuya continued the talk, "If I wanted to make a move on her, then I would use my game rune system. On our path ahead, I would just modify one of the beast's stats and make it attack her at my call."
A hero in shining armor would then appear and save the princess.
Such a cliche move would be highly effective in the current set-up and woman who had been protected by her father ever since her childhood.
But the thing was that Tetsuya wouldn't be able to make a move on a woman who got schemed like that just to get attracted to him.
He was not that desperate to trick women. It would be a different matter if she took fancy in his looks as it would be something 'natural', though.'
So if such a thing actually happened without any game master's scheme, then Tetsuya would probably make one of the women's fantasies real.
"Oh… Hmm." Ashley crossed her arms, then nodded a few times after contemplating, "I see! I like that." The duo continued to speak for a while before time to sleep arrived.
Just before sleeping, Ashley asked about the future plan, "You will sell items together with the merchant in the next city, right?"
"Yeah. It's for the merchant subclass in the future. We gotta make MMORPG more versatile and open to everyone. The subclasses also will help us." The game master's MMORPG had just five classes that were solely focused on training.
The more players would require more attention and the subclasses were the help that Tetsuya was thinking off. He also planned to play with the game master's experience concept to not only make items, but work with the subclasses as well.
"It will be fun then! Good night, Tetsuya!"
"Good night."
Ashley's voice was like a lullaby that easily sent the male game master to dreamland.
-
"Mr. Broney. We have been surrounded by the bandits." The guard leader whispered through the door while keeping an eye on surrounding people.
Those bandits were equipped in not shabby equipment at all, so his voice was a little serious.
Upon opening the doors in his carriage, Broney left the safe ground and with his guard next to him he appeared not too far away from the bandit leader.
His eyes scanned through everyone, then small calculations flashed through his mind.
"What do you exactly need and how much?" He asked, his eyes serious.
The merchant's life was about stakes.
You either lost or won on the market, but merchant's losses were not only here. This profession required poker face, calm and analyzing personality as even the trip's costs could often drastically increase.
It was all about the guard's equipment and the safety of his carriages.
Even one lost wheel could leave a huge scar on the merchant's bank…
"Hehe! You seem to know your shit. Niceeee! We want half of your food and at least one hundred silver coins!" The bandit leader demanded, his knife threatening the merchant by reflecting the sun into his eyes.
Slightly narrowing those, Broney nodded and arranged people to pass the money and food.
"Hah! Wise men live longer! See ya!" The bandit leader got a lot of food and money, his face completely satisfied. He didn't lose anything at all and had just great results, so he and his people smugly waved their hands at the merchant while disappearing.
Once they left, Broney turned his eyes to the guard leader, "We would win, but the casualties would be too much to cover by this trip."
"I agree. Though we have great people on our side, it's not worth taking this risk. I also feel like their equipment was too new, so they must've either joined someone else or successfully plundered some other mercenaries."
"They are still stupid." It was Broney's turn to smile wickedly. He didn't even give half of his food and those silver coins were nothing for him who had been successful in his field for a while.
If the bandit group had at least ten less people, then he would ask his guard to just go at them!
But he was a wise man! If his reputation was of that merchant who had a lot of casualties around his name, then who would accept a job from him?
There were a lot of factors behind this simple goal and the person not too far away was sucking all those with big eyes like a sponge!
The Game Master was preparing Merchant Subclass smoothly, his experience getting higher and higher.