Chapter 47 - Grinding Time  

Berat grinned wildly and quickly sent him a request before the person decided to change his mind. Liam as well fished out his request among the several others that came his way since the world announcements and accepted it.

The two of them then parted ways as Berat did not even have the necessary entrance fee for the city which was a whopping 50 silver.

Liam looked at his figure walking away and turned to head for the city.

He was still undecided about a lot of things, like forming a guild or trying to expand his influence, but it was impossible for him to take care of everything.

Even if he had all the knowledge, he still needed some underlings to do some of the menial labor.

While trusting another person was always risky, he had some special items already earmarked for this purpose, so accepting a few underlings might not be entirely out of the question.

But all of that can wait. First things came first and he quickly tossed the 50 silvers to the city guard and casually walked in through the huge iron gates.

Liam opened his quest menu and verified that the bear king quest was marked as complete.

To get the rewards, he had to meet with the instructor again, but he didn't plan on wasting time by traveling back and forth just for this.

The instructor along with several other big shots would visit the city in a couple of days when the black market would be open. This was a biweekly event and a treasure trove of easter eggs.

And Liam's next target was exactly this!

He planned to use this downtime to do some preparations so that when the time came he would easily be able to crack all the eggs.

Liam hummed lightly as he looked around at the familiar tall buildings and the stunning architecture which was heavily based on a conservative European style.

He looked relaxed enough but his speed was much faster than the city crowd which was almost entirely NPCs at this point.

He swung into narrow allies, climbed on the walls, and reached his destination in a couple of seconds taking the shortcuts he knew.

And when he turned around the next corner, he was in front of the city's auction house which was several times bigger than the small town's singular building.

Very rare and special items were auctioned inside these walls, but it was not time for that just yet. Liam was still only hoarding all the lower-tier and mid-tier materials.

He walked over to stand closer to the building, leaning on one of the stone walls. Almost immediately a menu popped up listing all the currently available items.

His gaze flickered, quickly looking over the several herbs that were available and also for any recipes. It didn't matter what recipe, as long as it was something that he didn't know, he quickly purchased it.

There were also a lot of ores and gemstones, but Liam did not bother giving these a glance. After making another bulk purchase of herbs, he stretched out his hands. His job here was done.

"Next stop is the supply shop." Liam hummed and visited a shop across the street.

"Good day, Sir!" The merchant immediately brightened up as if he could smell all the gold Liam had on him.

"Greetings. I need to purchase some pieces of mining equipment. Make sure to include pickaxes, hammers, shovels, and sturdy gunny bags. I need about 50 sets of this."

The merchant's smile widened as his guess had been correct. "Right away sir. Please let me know if you need anything else." He then scurried away to fulfill the big order.

After a few minutes, he returned with all the items which Liam tossed swiftly into his inventory.

"That would be 1 gold after the discount, sir." Liam nodded and quickly paid him the amount. He received a small discount because of his title 'Rolling in Debt' but it was nothing significant.

He purchased a few more stamina refills, including smaller fruits that he could pop into his mouth at convenience, and left the shop.

Liam then walked over to the mining association a couple of blocks away to purchase mining rights which all players were required to do. This also bestowed the basic mining skill.

[Ding. Congratulations. You have learned the mining tradeskill]

Swiping the notification away, he then proceeded to directly walk out of the city.

There was also a blacksmithing association right next to the mining association that gave out more basic quests and skills for the blacksmithing trade, but he completely ignored it.

He continued to walk out of the city and into the surrounding forests. As he was one of the few players in the city, the guard recognized him. "Didn't he just enter the city?"

The two guards suspiciously looked at Liam who was already gone.. He would only be returning back to the city in time for the black market.