A New Star Chapter 52

I spent the rest of that day walking around just the merchant district, familiarizing myself with the place and the movements of the people. The most bustling part was the general market, an area of open-air stalls that started near the central district and ran through the heart of the merchant district. The businesses that had shops along that avenue were clearly the most prosperous, as attracting more foot traffic in from that central thoroughfare wasn't particularly difficult and gave a massive boost to sales. I checked a number of the shops myself, looking at the kinds of goods that were on display and what market prices were in the capital. I think the thing that was the biggest wakeup call was checking materials suppliers and seeing what they were demanding for even simple monster parts. The capital and the surrounding area weren't without their dungeons and beasts to harvest, but some of the prices were still absurd. Two golds for a D-grade beast core? Unbelievable. 

The smuggling made more sense to me now; if somebody could carry even a single bag of materials down from the Wilds and turn a fifty gold profit on the trip, I understand the urge and the demand. I browsed more shops, finding some better deals some places than others and, of course, everything was negotiable, but I struggled to think how people were able to work to make a living under these conditions. Certainly, many would go and harvest their own materials; there was a long tradition of supplying everything one needed oneself for an endeavor, and many kept to such things. Still, prices had to be outrageous for finished goods, which I confirmed when I browsed some of the weapons and armor available at two separate smithies. Not to denigrate those proud smiths' work, but the quality was not ideal and the price tags left me reeling.  

The only positive, and the only thing that allowed people to live in the capital and the surrounding area was the price of food. Between plenty of people with affinities that allowed the growth of crops and mandatory price regulations put in place by the royal family, food was abundant and cheap. One was able to purchase even a cooked meal at a restaurant for just a few coppers up to a silver coin in most districts, and there were plenty of ingredients and simple foods available that one could take home to cook for just a copper or two. This was still an age where housing was cheap and property taxes only really applied to massive land grants to nobles and usually had a time limit, making living even in a major city fairly cheap.  

It was always amazing to hear what people just casually discussed in any society, let alone one that was more open. Sure, there was all the typical gossip as I walked through the market, what neighbor was cheating on who with whom, what neighbor was acting weird, the increase of prices of this or that good causes angst, whispers of authorities cracking down on this or that, and far more beyond. Of course, it was all at the level of gossip, so it all had to be taken with a serious grain of salt, but there was something about such simple markets that I had missed. It had been centuries since I had even been able to get away from my duties and moving between one fleet or another to do anything else, let alone go to a ground-based market on some random world and walk around. It reminded me of long gone happier days.  

I returned to the Count's estate, finding Lester was still working on his requirements document, so I left him to that and had dinner alone. The Count was still dealing with the mess I had dumped in his lap, but he was a seasoned politician and I'm quite sure he was able to maneuver the situation to his advantage. If not, he would be far less skilled of a figure than I had assumed, but I had seen no indication of that in my interactions with the man. I doubted he would still be so highly regarded even outside his power as a Y-ranker if he was bad at political wrangling, and the busting of a gang with little actual work on his part and everything delivered to him in a nice and neat package was likely to turn out quite beneficial to him overall.  

The next I spent familiarizing myself with the city at large; it would not do to have only a good idea of the layout of two of the districts, and my affinities meant I could cover vast swathes of ground quickly. Despite being over a thousand, my mind and memory were still incredibly sharp and I had no problem memorizing the city's layout to include the twisting back alleys and complex residential districts. The city had been expanded several times, and there were some indications that it had been built upon the bones of older cities, which was not that strange, considering the cycles of boom and bust I had read about in the histories. While the nature of those cycles was strange, building and rebuilding cities in the same place as towns or cities of old was nothing unusual on any world. Still, the constant changes left some districts a warren of twists and turns while also compounding problems with their being several city walls. Wealth tended to aggregate inward in such situations, but there were several areas in the outer districts where wealthy minor nobles or merchants had built impressive homes.  

The city had more than four rings, though I found it amusing that not all of the current walls were exactly even. They had been built to surround either the current limit of a district or had been constructed in such a way as to allow for room to grow, though that had clearly failed, considering there were more walls beyond. I estimated the population of such a city at anywhere from five hundred thousand to about one and a quarter million, depending on factors such as person-density per living unit and so on. If poor families were stacking thirty people in a small apartment, the city had way over a million people living there, but if they had kept to more reasonable numbers, than sub one million was still possible based on total area and how much was taken up by either businesses or noble estates. A large place for such a low-tech world, but barely a speck as compared to some of the places I had seen in my last life, which included an ecumenopolis.  

The next day, I brought Lester into a room in the morning after I had eaten, holding out my hand to him. It took him only a moment to realize what I wanted, and he had to scramble a minute to fetch the report he had written and present it to me. He had used a bit of flowery language, which I ignored, simply paging through to get an idea of his estimates and reasoning. He said that raising himself two full ranks, not relying on any help from myself or anyone else other than financials, would require more than one platinum and fifteen golds, and he hadn't even included some incidentals that I thought would drive the price higher. It would be a staggering amount to most regular people and would likely piss off a minor noble, but I remained largely unconcerned. I had pocketed just a bit of money from the thuggish gang and our dear baronet that had been leading their little ring and was also confident in my ability to produce coin just through my alchemy alone. I gave the man fifty golds with an admonishment that I expected a detailed report at the six month mark and if his progress seemed sluggish, there would be consequences. Having fought me, and then experienced me using even more force to crush him and the baronet into the ground without apparent effort, he was rather effusive in his insistence that there would be no problems. 

Dismissing him from my mind, at least for the present, I turned to my next task. As I had been scouting the city and wandering from district to district, one of the things I had paid close attention to was my profession. Or rather, I should say the distinct lack of my current profession throughout the city, including not just the market district but places that were a bit…seedier. There were plenty of clinics scattered around, quite a high number, in point of fact, which spoke to a good policy by the current monarchy and nobility. Paying for healing for the citizens or even partially subsiding would help cut down on diseases and many unpleasant things that would wind up costing far more than the healing costs. Healing affinities were common enough, while not exactly a dime a dozen, that there was no need to desperately scramble for staff for the clinics, and most being low rank helped. Even if body affinity was discounted, raising other affinities would strengthen the body to a certain degree, requiring more power from the healer to correct injuries and disease. A more powerful body just needed more healing. With most people being below D-rank, that wasn't really a concern, and people who were much higher rank would have access to better healing, such as through the Adventurers Guild. 

And speaking of the Guild, that was my second task after checking through the market for healing items. I wanted to register with the guild, as I had not officially done so, though I thought that might turn into a whole ordeal on its own. There were multiple parts to registering with the Adventurers Guild, including testing for anyone that was higher than B-rank to determine their combat capability. It was quite possible to get to G- or H-rank without ever having seen live combat, and the guild didn't want someone walking in off the street, getting an H-rank badge of even the lowest level and getting put into a very bad situation because of that. There were enough stories of some spoiled minor noble or rich merchant's child that had walked into the Guild, gotten a copper H-rank badge, and then gotten themselves killed by signing up to fight H-rank beasts that there was testing required for higher ranks.  

The Guild ranked badges by several criteria, but what wound up being important were two things; the rank and the metal. A person was ranked based on their three highest affinities apart from their body affinity, which is where the great 'Rule of Three' came from. Apart from their ranking, the Guild would classify people based on their amount of services rendered to the Guild and various other metrics, assigning them a metal. Someone at D-rank might not be all that impressive, but if their badge was made of platinum, they still had real authority within the guild and even an O-rank with a copper badge would have to show them respect. Of course, tyranny of the tiers was always a thing, and power spoke louder than anything else, but a low-metal seen disrespecting a high-metal at the Guild would not have a very good career there. Even getting a copper badge would open up doors, and I could also start working to increase my standing, which would open even more. Senior members of the Adventurers Guild were treated with great respect throughout the continent and the organization looked after its own; if one didn't want to align with a military, knight order, or mercenary company, the Guild was a great place to give over one's allegiance without too many onerous burdens or strings attached. 

First, though, was alchemy, and my investigations had provided some mixed results. There were a handful, and I meant that literally, of alchemists in the capital, and they generally sold simple healing potions or small enhancements. One thing that I had seen that was lacking entirely was anything that improved the body; thinking of all the recipes I possessed and general knowledge in the art of body reinforcement I had, that was one place where I could likely outperform every alchemist in the Settled Lands. The problem was, were there not any of those kinds of things because the alchemists weren't very good at them, or was there simply no demand. From what I already had established, there was no demand for such products, meaning more of my knowledge wasn't worth much…for now. Not to put too fine a point on it, or talk down to the people of this world too much, but if there was one place where I could put them all to shame, well, I had experienced what companies with billions of credits devoted to marketing and advertising budgets could produce. There was no demand for body reinforcement? No problem. Demand could be manufactured, and rather easily, though I would need a lot more starting capital to get that kind of marketing up and running.  

The better wedge I had was with enhancement pills, the kinds I had been selling by the tubful to Pietr and his little gang. Whether it was increasing the grade of a low-grade affinity or making the increase of grade easier for the imbiber, the pills I was brewing would be immediately highly popular. I knew that for a couple reasons, including that the shelves housing such things at the two alchemist shops I visited were empty. People wanting shortcuts to power was nothing new at all, and alchemy could help with that for very little price. The main drawbacks to such pills were their expense, in that it took both rare ingredients to make and a lot of skill to craft, and that they had greatly diminishing returns. Somebody couldn't simply pop pills for a fire affinity until Z-grade, not by a long shot, but using pills to fairly quickly and easily get one or two early grades was simple, if expensive. Pills themselves, like all alchemical products, were graded, and somebody wasn't going to get any closer to a higher grade or ease their movement through a grade by taking low level pills. Somebody with a G-grade fire affinity could eat a bathtub full of A-grade fire affinity pills and see absolutely no difference, meaning there was demand at all grades for all pills.  

My market surveys showed that there was certainly some demand, but it was in fulfilling what were considered the hardest and most tedious alchemical products. That was one issue, one I could deal with and that would even possibly be an advantage for me, but the other issue still needed resolved. Namely, the thing I had come here for in the first place; somebody was interfering with my business by interfering in Pietr and Robin's smuggling operation. I had made only a little progress on that, and that was what I was going to be devoting the rest of my time in the capital to, apart from joining the Guild, of course. I had gotten some very interesting documents from the baronet's little smuggling operation, and they had provided me with several leads with I planned on pursing this coming night, after my first visit with the Guild.  

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