The Corrupted (2)

Right in front of my eyes appeared a screen that I was intimately familiar with.

Said screen was the one that I most commonly used when doing basically anything that included, storing objects, crafting objects and switching between weapons.

'How...?'

The screen in front of me was the one that was similar to the Terraria trading screen.

It followed a grid formation and in those grids were various items that were incredibly pixelated.

Not to the point that I couldn't tell what they were of course.

But they were similar to the appearance of items that transformed when they entered my inventory.

'Now that I think about it...'

Looking at my inventory filled with pixelated items, one thing lay bare in there that didn't become pixelated.

'You might be more important than I thought'

Looking at the egg I was attracted to the screen back in front of me, in addition to that, the person behind it.

Taking my silence for doubt the merchant opened their mouth.

"You don't seem familiar with this don't you?"

Rummaging through the pockets of their cloak they brought out a plaque that I was also familiar with.

"A golden merchant rank huh? You didn't seem like the type"

Glancing at the plaque and comparing it to the pixelated version just resting within my inventory I nodded.

It seemed that she was telling the truth.

It actually made sense now how they were able to have combat prowess that although was weak but was much better than a majority of the city guards in the world.

That didn't mean they could fight a large group of people with ease though like a combat oriented adventurer of at least B rank.

But it was a foundational requirement to have at the least combat prowess of C rank to be able to have a golden rank.

Or at least have enough people to beat up a B rank adventurer or mercenary.

Well it seemed that way when I looked at the requirements to reach the golden rank of the Merchant's guild.

Glancing at the revolver that had reaped a few lives tonight that was now resting on sky's hip.

The Barrel of the gun was still slightly smoking.

I noticed that a blade also rested on their hip underneath the coat now that the presence of the revolver was revealed.

'A good thing to note for sure, but now I have to worry if there's some sort of power attached to it'

Staring at the screen now that my line of thoughts had been completed, I looked at the screen with a complicated look.

'But how the hell does this work?'

Rubbing my chin in confusion, the Merchant named sky seemed to have picked up on my confusion and thankfully explained how it worked.

"You don't what this is? Well I guess this merchant screen is a rather rare sight to see if you aren't affiliated with the merchant's organization"

'...'

"But this is something that most merchant's of at east the gold rank receive if they have significant contributions to the merchants guild."

'The hell do I do that?'

"But I don't think you are looking for an explanation on how to get one of these as you don't seem to be interested in a merchant's plaque."

"See this little screen here?" Pointing at a little box the size of my hand sky continued.

"All you need to do is just put your coins in the subspace and select the desired object you want to buy"

Waving their hands in front of the screen the wandering merchant seemed to have changed into the average door to door salesman trying to sell their products.

Holding a golden coin up in the air, they grinned and slotted it into the blank square.

And lo and behold.

It acted just like the inventory I had and took in the coin, showing a small digitalized version of the golden coin in the side of the inventory knock off.

"Think of this as thanks for helping me earlier with the corrupted and I'll add it to your tab."

Grinning slightly they watched as I neared the screen that was filled with items and looked at them.

The rest of the time included me looking at the items in the screen with interest and looking at their costs while wondering if I should give the coins to the merchant.

I didn't know why there were so many items that did nothing however, and I voiced that dissent.

Raising an eyebrow at that statement "You think the title of merchant in my name is just for show? Well I need to sell other things as well you know?"

"I can't just be selling weapons to satisfy you adventurers you know? I have a much wider audience to satisfy"

"Fair"

Turning back to the screen I finally relented and poured my coins into the system knockoff and bought everything I needed.

And she gave it to me without problems.

"So you wanted... gray zapinator... code 1... lots of Sake (Eastern Wine)... and finally the birdie rattle"

Looking at me as they noted down all the things I wanted "That is all you want right?"

"You forgot the katana"

"Great! If that's all there is than that'll be... 10+17 +..." murmuring to themselves the wandering merchant made their calculations before looking at me with the big blue eyes of theirs.

"31 gold coins and 51 silver, all of which has already been paid!" Handing back my change of 49 silver with a happy expression, I accepted it without problem.

Handing my personally paid for items from their inventory I was greeted with the same phenomenon that I was incredibly familiar with since my arrival into this world.

The merchant began taking out the items from the sub space much like how I did it with my own personal inventory.

The only difference between my and Sky's inventories was that mine seemed invisible to the eye.

And was more flexible in it's usage seeing as I could take out items from my pocket and they had to have a large empty space for the items to come out.

including the smaller objects of course.

Glancing at the screen with curiosity in my eyes I accepted my new items without a thought and put them into my inventory in front of them.

Pocketing my weapons I looked at the merchant who stared back at me.

The sun slowly breached the horizon as it's sun rays fell onto the land and seeped through the leaves of the trees surrounding us.

"So Sky"

"?"

"It seemed like you were expecting the corrupted, why is that?"

Glancing at me before looking at the corpses on the ground that had by now somehow had been disintegrating into thin air while being devoured by the surrounding plant life.

The wandering merchant named sky opened their mouth.

And the words that left their mouth were ones that left me in surprise as I was much farther off course than I had thought than before.

---

"What do you mean we're at the border of the Evil Biome Corruption!?"

+++

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