"Finally done. There were a lot more applicants than I thought."
"Turtle boss, I'm dead tired and my throat hurts too. I want some cold drinks."
"Did you run out of money? I have some here if you want to go out to buy some drinks."
"Buy some for me, I don't want to move."
"I thought you were the kind of person that can't stay still."

Sitting for that long of a time really does tire you out. Well, I'm not tired normally speaking but my body is sore from acting like the good guy at the interview.

Having a kind smiling face all the time is harder than I thought. I think my cheeks will fall off.

"Is beer enough for you or do you want some fruit wine?"
"I want something refreshing that won't haunt me the next morning."
"Those drinks should do the same as long as you don't drown your stomach with it."
"I want to drown my stomach with something refreshing that won't haunt me the next morning."
"I'll find some fruit drinks then. Don't whine to me that I'm slow later."
"Don't be slow then."
"I'll do my best. In the meantime, why don't you think of some names to add to the shortlist. We'll discuss which is best when I get back."
"Sure~~~"

I better hurry, Hops looks like she would melt into the bed.

She's probably too tired to buy food too. I guess I can stop by later for that too.

For now, I have three people in mind that stand out from all of the applicants.

The Bisonkin that specialises in using a giant axe. He is more of an attacker but his attack speed prevents him from charging recklessly into the enemies, or at least that is how he phrased it. He would bolster our immediate battle power by acting as a tank.

There is also that assassin snakekin. She doesn't speak that much but her profession is very intriguing. Also, if we had her, she could handle all of the intelligence gathering work.

The last one is a tigerkin. I don't know why she travelled all the way out here, and why she wants to be a guard for a small merchant group like us but a tigerkin like her is a really good addition to our team. She is a brawler that uses her claws to scratch and pound enemies.

She fights like a whirlwind of violence in battle, according to her description. She would create enough chaos in the battlefield for hops to take out their leader.

I would love to hire the three but having three new employees would be hard to handle. There are just the two of us. We would be outnumbered.

The most we could hire is two but I still want to start off with one because I'm not sure about our future income.

We don't have a steady source of income. We don't have a home store and a product under our name, which only we can provide.

The qualification to be a medium merchant group is a home store. A place we can call our home base.

We also need a brand name product that can be considered ours. The product has a loose meaning. It doesn't have to be unique. As long as it has our name, it passes. It could be roasted peanuts with a different seasoning and it could be considered our brand name product.

The important thing is to have a product that the masses will associate with our name. It will be the poster name for our merchant group, so we would need to be sure that the product can be sold reliably in our stores.

It's the first big barrier for merchants.

"Welcome, what would you like?"
"Can I have a strawberry banana smoothie and cold orange juice? I'll also take some pineapple. One is fine but please remove the skin."
"Thank you for the business."

We could even sell fruit as our brand name item. We just have to make sure that our supply is steady, which means we would need to have a plantation that can supply us reliably, or own a plantation ourselves.

"The total would be 50 copper coins."
"Here you go."
"Thank you very much, please wait on the side for your order."

This is why merchant groups grow in numbers before they could even upgrade to a medium merchant group.

In general, a small merchant group is like a wandering caravan. They carry most of their wealth with them, in products at least, so they are good targets for bandits. However, they fight the fiercest because the moment they lose their cargo, they lose everything.

A medium merchant group has a home store. They would still have caravans but it is up to the president if they want to develop their caravan network or bolster their store. While small merchant groups give out the biggest payout if bandits attack them, medium merchant group caravans are reliable money for them. Depending on the focus of the president, the caravan would be less defended and since they have a home store, they don't carry that much products.

Using the logic of not putting all eggs in one basket, they won't put all of their wealth in the caravans. That is why it is acceptable for them to lose cargo from time to time. It would be within the acceptable loss. This is why it is reliable money because it won't be defended like their life is on the line.

Finally, the large merchant guilds can yield the best income if you successfully defeat them. However, they are also the most defended among them all. They basically have small armies defending their caravan.

The minimum standard for them is a headquarters, five stores in multiple regions, and five items that are solely theirs. It should be something that only they could create and sell. They should have sole property rights of those five items.

This is why there aren't that many large merchant guilds. This is also why it's easy for large merchant guilds to stop medium merchant groups from rising the ranks.

I am confident in rising to a medium merchant group but I would need to buy some land if I want to reach the heights of a large merchant guild. I would need a large piece of land with good resources, preferably ore since those are expensive in this continent.

There is a long way before I come to that point. I will have to establish a good foundation for that to happen first.

"Here is your order."
"Ah, Can I please have a tray with that?"
"No problem, sir."
"Thank you."

Ok, I have the drinks. I should head for a restaurant next. The inn food was ok but I want something better after an exhausting day of interviewing applicants.

Everything starts from here. I will need reliable team mates to reach that point. Hops is one, I don't know if that next one is part of the applicants, so I'll concentrate with hops.

Right now, we need people in the combat department but once we bolstered that part, we need some people that could do office work.

*Knock* *Knock* *Creak*

"I'm back! You awake? I bought drinks and food."
"Slow! Why are you slow, turtle boss?"
"I didn't take any detours, the line wasn't long on the places I bought too. If you want to blame someone for being slow, blame it on you who doesn't want to move. Here, your smoothie."
"Thanks."

Hmm, she seems lively enough now. I guess she only needed a breather.

"How is it? Did any of the applicants catch your eye?"
"Right now, I want the tigerkin brawler and the snakekin assassin. They seem useful, especially the snakekin. She seems to be effective at a range too. If we can only have one then the assassin would be best."

Oh, I didn't think about that. Having a ranged combatant would be a great asset for us at this stage. She can cover a wide range and control the enemy mob. She is also good at tracking, so she can see bandit ambushes from far away.

"I thought we settled for a tank?"
"Which one? There was a lot of huge beastkin that applied. I haven't seen them in battle but I don't really want a slow moving target dummy for our first employee. They can be useful but they need someone with them to capitalise the large cover they provide."
"There are other long range attackers in the applicants too. Why the snakin assassin? Although she can do long range attacks, that isn't her specialty. How about the Dogkin? He was a hunter that used a bow as a main weapon. He also has a good sense of smell. He could spot enemies from far away. We can avoid ambushes with him."
"He is a good choice too but he is very inflexible. He is loyal and a good guard but very dependent. He would be very useful but not now when we only started. Right now, we don't need people that can only do one job to the extreme. The snakekin assassin can track, gather intelligence, sneak attack enemies, and be a long range combatant. The main point is to gather intelligence because with her skills, she would be able to sneak into place to get information we need. Among all of the applicants, only she can do that kind of work. Most of them applied to be a guard, so most of the people that came have the same set of skills. They can fight good but she stands out because she is effective even outside of combat."
"However, it is very suspicious that she stands out too much. She stands out too much among the applicants."
"I know what you want to say turtle boss. However, we are only starting out. Our products aren't even that unique. The amount isn't that much either. There isn't any merit for anyone to place a spy on us."

That is true. Even if we think long term, in this continent where the beast king announced the survival rule to be in place, the possibility of a merchant group surviving to be useful for anyone's scheme is small. Especially for someone like us who only has two people in it.

If I think that someone is sending spies to control merchants from the inside, then they would rather choose those that have some number to them, a group that already has a decent record among a wide range of territories, and a group that has a steady source of income.

There is no reason to place a spy on a newly formed merchant group like us.

"Ok, so we should hire the snakekin assassin?"
"Turtle boss, is it also possible to hire the tigerkin brawler? Do we have enough in our budget?"
"I see, you can't choose between them?"
"Yeah, I want the snakekin assassin for sure but the tigerkin brawler isn't someone we can encounter a lot. She seems like someone like me who just left their ancestral territory. She probably wants to join us to travel the lands and encounter different foes and hone her skill. I think she would be a great addition to our team."
"I will think about it. Anyway, here is food. Eat up, we still have until the day after to decide. We are still mentally fatigued from today's interview sessions. We'll discuss this further tomorrow when our minds are clear. Let's give all of the applicants another look later."
"Ok, thanks turtle boss."

We do have enough funds for both of them but the problem is if we can earn a steady income after hiring them. We are still in debt. I want to make sure that we have an income after subtracting the instalment payment, wagon maintenance, food, lodging and feed for the mounts.

If we are still on the positive after all of that removed, and the possible employee wages, then I will consider hiring both of them. I can't continue on a negative that it eats into the savings.

I will tolerate it eating into the savings if I can ensure it will turn into a profit later but not if I can't ensure it.

I'll also need to rent out a workshop here in the city to make equipment for me and hops. Ah, when will I have enough money to not worry about these. Being a merchant is harder than I thought.