"30!"
"10~"
"25!"
"11~"
"20!"
"11 silver and 1 copper~"
"18! Come on, you're killing me here. Give me a bit of leeway here."
"Ok, 14 silver coins. I can't give anymore. You're only selling wood. There are others selling it too and they do bulk trading at a cheaper price."
"And yet you are still here haggling prices with me. I'm selling more and rare varieties."
"Yes, that is why I'm still here buying things from you. However, there are still others who sell things you are selling. This is as much as I can buy it for. If you want a better price, I suggest travelling to another continent. Even if we are in need of trees, we don't need it to the point we will overpay."
"Ok, Ok, We'll settle with 14."
"Good, You can leave them here. Take this form over there to collect the money."
"Ok thanks, see you next month."
"Yeah, see you next month. Oh, bring more maple next time."
"Is it because it's sweet?"
"Well, we only eat the bark but the wood itself can be used to smoke other food. It's better to buy that as it isn't only beaverkin that lives here. Ah, don't think of raising any prices because of that. This demand won't last long. There are already other merchants that are bringing them in."
"Alright, I'll keep it in mind."
The fee to chop down trees is 2 silver coins. The trip took a week and we used up 10 silver coins and 60 copper coins for supplies, food for the horse, repairs for the axes and wagon, and tax for the cargo, which was paid the moment we entered this town. The wagon took some strain dragging a load of trees. Even with that the amount of logs we can carry isn't that much.
The profit margin is slim. We could earn more if we have another wagon and another horse to pull it specifically for the logs. The problem is that I don't have enough coins to do that.
"Yo, turtle boss. How was it? Did we at least break even?"
"I'll tell you later at the restaurant. Let's unload the cargo first."
"Please bring us the specialties."
"No, No, No, The specials here aren't edible for us, turtle boss."
"Ah, forgot about that. Please bring us the herbivore set A."
The menu in this continent here is weird. There are too many varieties and you won't always find your preferred food. That is why the hero made set meals. You just add your preferred dietary habit and they present the most acceptable food to eat.
Turtles are more of an omnivore but the herbivore meal set is cheaper. We have to save money until we start making money. I know you need to spend money to earn money but excess food isn't a necessity for my merchant life right now.
"It seems that your plan isn't going well. Are we going to have to set up a toll out in the woods and ambush passing merchant groups to relieve them of their coins?"
"Ambush? What? No!! We aren't going to do something like that. There may have been a setback but that is only normal since we have only started. We have an official merchant licence now. I'm not going to risk having my licence revoked for a stumbling block at the start of our merchant journey."
"We are only starting, so it's exactly the perfect moment for this. We can just start our merchant life some time in the future once we earn enough to blow the hurdles we are facing right now."
"If we do that then we will have to face a bigger hurdle! Low funds is an easy problem but once word spreads that we are bandits that robbed left and right, we won't be able to do good business. Reputation precedes money for a merchant, especially at the start when we don't have any of it! Money will come easy but reputation can only be built up slowly over time."
"So we will still have to be in the logging business for some time?"
"Yes but not for long. We only need to do this enough times that we earn an introduction letter to the molekins."
"I know where the molekin's territory is. Let's just head straight there. We don't need an introduction letter of some sort. They are a stubborn group but not enough to directly refuse newcomers."
It seems that they would get along well with the dwarfs.
"The introduction letter is to help speed things up. I said before that reputation is built over time, right? That letter would help transfer whatever reputation we have here to there. It won't be a one to one but it's better than starting from zero. It makes haggling, buying and selling much easier. At this time where we don't have a lot of variety of goods, we need to take as much of a profit as we can get."
"Is that how it is? You said that we only earned a silver coin even with all of the work we put in. Even with your so-called reputation, and even if it doubled or tripled our profit, it won't amount to much."
"That is because we don't have a lot to sell. We are only selling wood, so profit won't be much. The more variety we carry and the further we carry them, the more valuable it is. A cup of water in a village next to a natural spring is worthless but a drop of the very same water in a dessert is worth its weight in gold. Right now, we can't supply the demand in this area. Like I said before, we are only catching the crumbs that fell on the ground."
We don't have the current power to fight the larger merchant groups for profit.
"Right now we are weak. The only thing we can swallow are the crumbs, anything bigger and we would choke. The first thing we need to do is be better at fighting for the crumbs."
"Don't speak in circles, just say what we need to do. You are the one with all the schemes. Let's hear what dirty trick you have up your sleeve this time."
Who are you calling a schemer? You are the one who wanted to bring a traitor into our group some time in the future to let the others feel the despair of being betrayed.
"As impatient as ever."
"I'm not impatient, you are just slow. Both your manners, your speech and your actions are slow."
"Fine, To put it simply, we will raise our carrying capacity. Having a second wagon would double our profit. I would do all of the repairs from now on to save more cost."
"We don't have money to buy a second wagon. Wait! Don't tell me you are planning to take out a loan? We don't have enough people to protect two wagons. If something happens and we lose one or both of them then we won't be able to come back."
"The travel from the squirrelkin's territory to here isn't that dangerous. As long as we do this enough times, we could continue on to the next town. Once we reach there, I will have to put forth a bit of effort to settle the debt."
I'll buy some ore, refine a few items and sell it to cover the cost of the debt. After that, I will arm myself and hops here with better weapons. I'll make armour and reinforce the wagons. After that, I'll make trinkets to sell to other towns.
"You have those eyes that look like you are mapping out every step we need to take again. Out with it. I'm sure things won't go according to plan as usual but don't be shy and tell me your master plan."
"I know things won't always follow my plan. These plans are a guideline to help us, so we don't blindly charge into the unknown. The plan is to head back to the squirrelkin's territory to take out a loan. We will buy another workhorse and a wagon. Continue chopping trees to deliver here. After we do this enough times, we can move on to the molekin's territory. We will take some furniture, cotton and a few textile rolls to sell to them. This is in demand in their area."
"So we will make profit with all of that?"
"Yes! However, most of the profit will probably go to the debt."
"*Sigh* I feel like I made the wrong choice somewhere. Why do I feel like you are using me as free labour?"
"You are a co-founder of our merchant group. This is only the start of our group. Of course we have to suffer for some time. Don't worry, once we reach the molekin's territory, I have a way to pay off the debt."
"You'll start making weapons, right?"
"Yes! I'll start makin- Wait, wait, wait! How do you know I make weapons?"
Does she have an appraisal skill like the prince? Did she find out I have an extensive amount of skills that are different from my current race? That itself is very useful for a merchant but also worrying because I am not the one who is using it.
"You had a well crafted wooden spear and shield in the jungle. You went to work at the smith workshop and made some accessories. I saw you make them. Did you think you were hiding your smithing skills with that?"
"Ah, I see. Yeah, well, Umm. I am indeed planning to make some weapons to sell. It won't be much since a weapon merchant without guards is a very easy target, I also don't want to spend all my time forging. I would really much like to just be a merchant that buys low and sells high."
"That makes sense, with your speed, you won't be able to keep up with the demand."
Once we settle the debt, we would have to start hiring employees. We won't earn much just travelling to neighbouring territories like this.
If we want to earn more then we would have to travel far. Especially to places like the town in the tigerkin's territory. They only have contact with one merchant caravan and most of the profits are pocketed by them.
We aren't strong enough to journey through dangerous places like that but I am sure there are remote towns and villages where very few merchants pass through. If those merchants don't care for those places because they won't get much of a profit then let me take all of the money that can be earned there.
We can only chew small profits like those anyway, so might as well take them all! What we need now is time! A bit of time to grow.
