Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20 The Elite Trading Syndicate

Chloe’s luck had been solid and she’d scored a healthy stack of blueprints, but her material reserves were still meager. Even her basic supplies amounted to only a small fraction of what she needed.

Most of what she’d managed to stockpile had come from that first night, when she’d lit torches with her matches and traded them to other players. Those reserves were nearly gone now.

As for Premium wood and iron, she hadn’t seen a single scrap of it in the first two days. Only today’s fishing and the barrage of chest openings had netted her 20 or 30 Premium Wooden Logs.

CarpenterSoul was casually offering 300 units in a single trade.

Chloe: [I have one more condition.]

CarpenterSoul: [What is it?]

Chloe: [I need five wooden buckets. And one wooden table and one wooden chair as well.]

CarpenterSoul sent over the system trade agreement.

Notification: [CarpenterSoul offers 300 Premium Wooden Logs, 100 units of Premium Ore, 10 Cubic Yard Soil Plots, 12 Treant Essence, one Wooden Buckler, one Wooden Fence, and five Wooden Buckets in exchange for the Adept Carpentry Tome. Do you accept?]

CarpenterSoul: [This price is a little above the market rate.]

Chloe: [For a skill tome blueprint that perfectly matches your talent, I didn’t mark it up by much.]

Chloe’s meaning was clear. She could have gouged him, but she chose not to.

CarpenterSoul replied: [I know.] and sent a friend request immediately after.

Chloe accepted. Several hundred units of Premium basic materials were now in her possession. Premium goods were in even higher demand than she’d imagined. As for that Premium Hound’s Fang Dagger she’d traded earlier for nine cubic yards of soil, looking back, that price hadn’t been particularly high after all. Since CarpenterSoul seemed like a seasoned trader, Chloe took the opportunity to ask him something. Chloe: [How do you determine the market price?]

CarpenterSoul didn’t waste words. He sent her an invitation.

Notification: [Elite Trading Syndicate (Current Members: 563). Join?]

Chloe tapped confirm. The moment she entered, the group announcement stared her in the face: [Elite Trading Syndicate: Items below Premium quality aren’t accepted for trade.

[The current hard currency is ‘Cubic Yard Soil Plot.!’ Skill tomes and blueprints are to be sold through a bidding process. Messages are categorized as major or non–major.

[When posting trade information, members may rent the group Admin’s ‘Fairness‘ talent to assess value. Malicious price gouging and posting of intentionally false trade information will result in permanent expulsion from this group.]

Chloe’s eyes went wide. ‘How, in just three days, is there already a dedicated Premium trading group?‘

She found herself wearing the same stunned expression that other players on the Trading Post had aimed at

her. ‘Are these pros and I even playing the same game?‘ she wondered.

Once inside, she spotted plenty of familiar names: Frost Trace, MintyGrass, LilFish, Eureka, and that RichDragonWolf fellow.

FrostTrace: [Welcome, newcomer.]

MintyGrass: [You finally pulled her in, Admin. Chloe, I was just about to DM you about that Coarse Burlap Loom blueprint.]

Chloe scanned the format other group members used for their listings and followed suit, presenting her own

1/2

Chapter 20 The Elite Trading Syndicate

Coarse Burlap Loom blueprint.

Notification: [Blueprint: Coarse Burlap Loom. Facility Type: Expansion Facility. Quality: Premium. Blueprint Usage Limit: 5 times.

[Coarse Burlap Loom: Can produce coarse burlap from Plant Fibers at a fixed rate. Different types of Plant Fibers yield different grades of burlap with varying effects and quality.]

MintyGrass: [I want it. You can make clothes with that.

[But LilNimbus would probably want it even more. Her talent lets her craft clothes.]

[LilNimbus: 8 Cubic Yard Soil Plots, 100 Premium Iron, 50 Premium Wooden Logs. I upgraded my crafting table recently so my basic materials are running low.

[But I see you might need some special magical materials? I have a few Premium Dreamscape Crystals here. Attributes are High–Density Crystal and Energy Medium. I can include those in the trade.]

Chloe glanced at her Basic Arcane Defense Tower requirements. The tower demanded Premium materials, while upgrading her territory from Level 0 to Level 1 only required basic, ungraded resources.

After her trade with CarpenterSoul, she already had all the Premium materials the defense tower needed. What she was still missing was the Arcane Workbench Upgrade Tome, ten Energy Mediums, three Elemental Mediums, one Rare or higher High–Magic Medium, and fifty units of Premium adhesive material.

She realized Slime Ooze actually counted as a Premium adhesive material. ‘Slimes truly are wonderful. What mage wouldn’t love a Slime?‘

Other group members had also bid on the loom, but their offers hovered around the same range. What set LilNimbus apart was that she’d thrown magical materials into the mix.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify