Chapter 6: The Gnome Grocery Store
The busy crowd consisted mostly of merchants coming and going, along with some common adventurers in leather armor. City guards patrolled the streets from time to time, and in the distance stood the towering spires of the castle. There was also the Grand Temple of the Goddess of Agriculture, a magnificent structure on par with the lord’s castle.
After getting off the carriage and paying the shopkeeper for the fare, Donald marveled at the scene, which matched his memories. Then, following his recollection of the location, he walked toward the most prosperous commercial district in Stone City.
The so-called commercial district was simply a name Donald had used based on his habits from his past life. In reality, it was a bustling street filled mostly with shops, located outside the lord’s castle and the residences of various nobles, between those areas and the neighborhoods inhabited by wealthy merchants.
This commercial street truly lived up to its reputation as the wealthiest and most prosperous area in Stone City. It featured luxurious shops selling noble luxuries, as well as shops selling various other goods lining both sides of the street.
Although it was several hundred years behind the bustling commercial streets of his past life, this was still the liveliest place Donald had seen in this world.
Perhaps because Clinton and the other two followed Donald, they encountered no accidents or troubles along the way. There was no sign of nobles oppressing commoners either. Though they had taken off their steel armor and shields, Clinton and the others were tall and strong, with fine long swords at their waists—clearly not for show. Their presence alone gave them a presence far beyond that of ordinary warriors. Only those who had fought in battles and killed many enemies could possess such a fighting mindset. Ordinary people would instinctively back away when encountering them at full strength, to avoid trouble.
Donald ignored the bustling shops and headed straight to a store at the end of the street, closest to the noble district.
The store’s front was deserted; not a single customer came in or out after a long time. This was quite unusual in such a bustling commercial street. Yet, passersby showed no signs of confusion, as this store was none other than Stone City’s most mysterious gnome magic shop.
It was said that the magic shop sold magical items and materials used by mages. Aside from mages, only nobles and powerful professionals were allowed to enter. Others were not welcome, and those who violated this rule would face punishment from mysterious magic.
Of course, Donald knew this was just a rumor among ordinary civilians who feared wizards and mysterious magical items. In reality, this goblin shop, which only sold low-grade alchemical items and basic spell materials, wasn’t as heavily guarded as imagined.
Looking at the old storefront, with its dark gray wooden sign bearing crooked lines of goblin script he didn’t recognize, Donald pushed the door open without hesitation and stepped inside.
Entering this so-called mysterious shop, Donald found it far from as mysterious as the rumors suggested—it was just like an ordinary rural grocery store. Aside from the front side, wooden counters were set up on the other three sides, with only a narrow gap wide enough for children under ten to pass through. On the walls behind the counters stood rows of wooden shelves filled with cluttered goods labeled with tags.
Of course, unlike ordinary grocery stores, here one could find all sorts of strange items. Feathers of birds, bat wings, toad skins—these were already quite bizarre, and there were also crystal bottles containing many unknown substances, some of which could make most ordinary people feel terrified just by glancing at them.
But having seen much in his past life and watched countless horror movies, Donald found these things merely strange and not particularly frightening.
As Donald observed the shop, a shrill voice came from behind.
“Where did you come from, kid? Old Delley’s grocery store isn’t a place for little brats like you to just waltz in. Don’t disturb the great goblin merchant Old Delley just to satisfy your curiosity. If you’re not buying anything, get out now!”
Donald looked down and saw a green head with withered yellow hair sticking out from under one of the counters at the back of the shop.
Seemingly offended by Donald’s height undermining his pride, the green-skinned creature angrily climbed onto a wooden stool, standing up to Donald’s chest level. Then, with impatience, it waved its chicken-claw-like hands and drove him away, saying, “If you’re not buying anything, leave now! Get out of Old Delley’s shop. Wasting Old Delley’s time is wasting money—unless you can pay in enough gold sols!”
It seemed that if it weren’t for the three tall men behind Donald, this goblin owner would have started chasing him right away.
Donald wasn’t angry, but rather observed this self-proclaimed goblin merchant, Old Delley, with interest.
Seeing goblins for the first time, Donald’s initial impression of them was that they were small, frail, and ugly. Yet these green-skinned little beings were indeed a human-like intelligent race in this world. With weaker constitutions, they differed from their close relatives, the wild goblins and cave dwellers. Unlike the wild goblins, who possessed only primitive intelligence and led a savage life, and the cave dwellers, who were inherently timid and cowardly with no other merits beyond farming, the goblins used their intelligence to develop mechanical manufacturing and alchemy techniques distinct from those of other races. In ancient times, they even created a powerful goblin technological civilization. However, their civilization violated the rules of this world, triggering a global disaster that led to the downfall of their vast goblin empire. The goblins, who believed in their own intelligence rather than gods, received no divine protection and lost most of their population in the disaster, with only a small number surviving in underground cities. It was said that the surviving goblins were punished by the gods for causing the disaster; most turned into intellectually inferior wild goblins, while only a few retained their intelligence and passed on some of the creations and technologies of their civilization. Since then, aside from reclusive tribes, goblins generally became vassals of other powerful races to ensure survival. Apart from the proud elves, dwarves, orcs, and human forces all had goblin groups serving them, providing alchemical items and magical goblin creations. Notably, over the past few hundred years, a unique profession has emerged among the surviving goblins: the goblin merchant. As the most widespread commercial force in this world, goblin merchants, acting individually and connected through tribes, formed the Goblin Merchant Union. They opened shops in almost all settlements of intelligent races, laying the foundation for a vast commercial network. Some goblin merchants in human territories specialized in dealing with mages and nobles. Goblin shops brought convenience to various intelligent races, and since the goblins themselves posed no threat, the powerful races allowed their existence. With the protection of the Goblin Merchant Union, few forces dared to offend these green-skinned dwarfs, as those who did could never buy any goods from them again. Donald also had some understanding of the goblin merchants’ cunning, greed, and materialistic nature, so he spoke in a calm tone filled with confidence and firmness.
“Goblin merchants are the shrewdest traders in the world—can’t they even tell the difference between real customers and troublemakers? Then this goblin shop really disappoints me. You might just be a merchant disguised as a wild goblin!”
The goblin owner, Old Deli, roared angrily in some incomprehensible goblin language upon hearing this.
Then, in a sharp voice typical of his kind, he shouted in Common to Donald, “Human! This is an insult to the great goblin merchant Old Deli! I’ve run my shop in Giantstone City for fifty years—far longer than your age! Any magical item available in the Kingdom of Celt can be found here!”
This was exactly what Donald had been waiting for. The simple provocation tactic from his past life proved effective even in this world, especially against a race like goblins who were skillful but only cunning and petty in their dealings.
“Then, great goblin merchant, do you have any books for beginners in magic?”
Donald’s slightly skeptical tone offended the goblin merchant. To prove his greatness, Old Deli laughed shrilly. “Hahahahaha! So you’re a magic apprentice? Of course, the great goblin merchant has books for beginners! If you have thirty gold sols, you can take them!”
Saying this, he produced a thick volume bound in parchment. To retaliate for the insults of this annoying human boy, the greedy Old Deli raised the price by five gold sols.
Unaware of this, or even if he had known, Donald wouldn’t have cared. He promptly paid thirty gold sols and acquired the thick parchment-bound book. After declining the merchant’s other pitches, he briefly glanced at the magical items and tools the merchant offered, only to find that their effects and power were far inferior to those in the Book of Truth, and their prices were significantly higher.
Fifty-some gold sols was already a huge sum for Donald, who had been poor for over a decade. But to buy expensive magical items, this amount would likely be spent on just two of the most ordinary magic tools that could cast two tricks each—far less than enough to spend freely here.
On the other hand, if he used those fifty gold sols to buy elemental crystals and exchange them for similar items in the Book of Truth, he could summon at least five secondary magical items. These were real magical items, far superior to the apprentice-level trick tools on the shelves.
Based on the item levels in the game, the Book of Truth classified summoned items into three categories: ordinary magical items from level 0 to 3, legendary creations from level 4 onward, and sub-legendary items from level 7 onward.
Ordinary magical items are divided into four levels: secondary, primary, intermediate, and advanced, corresponding to levels 0 to 3 in the game. This classification is similar but not exactly the same as the equipment levels in this world. As for higher-level items, they are still beyond Donald’s current reach.
Thus, Donald had no desire to buy anything else, as it was all useless to him. Soon, the four of them left the goblin merchant’s magic grocery store. Without hiring a carriage, they went to a secluded area outside the city and used four level-1 magical beast cores to summon four warhorses.
Although human knights are powerful troops at level 4, their warhorses, without armor, are merely equivalent to level-1 monsters. Level-1 magical cores were no longer a luxury for Donald, so using one on a journey wasn’t something to worry about!
As a noble, even if he was a fallen one, Donald had received riding training since childhood. Though not highly skilled, he could still ride and travel fairly easily.
The only downside was that the warhorses summoned from magical cores didn’t come with saddles. After just half an hour, back outside Red Maple Town, Donald felt intense pain in his legs and cursed inwardly, realizing that the scenes of riding at high speed shown in TV shows and movies in his past life were lies. Although riding was much faster than using a carriage, his buttocks couldn’t endure such torture.
As for Clinton and the other two, they clearly lacked riding skills, but thanks to their calm personalities, they endured the discomfort without showing the same grimace as Donald.
“It seems we should prioritize getting a good carriage soon. Otherwise, if we don’t hire one, we’ll have to suffer like this again!”
He led the warhorses to a hidden forest outside the town, the Red Maple Forest, and silently commanded the four warhorses to be recalled.
This was the message transmitted to him by the Book of Truth through his mind. Through his use of the Book of Truth over these days, Donald had become increasingly proficient in wielding this artifact.
Generally, summoned creatures can be recalled by the Book of Truth as long as the summoning time limit hasn’t expired. Of course, the energy and residual soul power recovered this way cannot be used for summoning again; instead, they are absorbed by the artifact itself, gradually enhancing its power and repairing any damage sustained by the Book of Truth during spatial storms.
As a high-tier artifact, in addition to its ability to summon, it should also possess great power on its own. At the very least, the Book of Truth, once repaired to a level equivalent to that of a sub-artifact, can, under the influence of its rules and divine power, completely ignore ordinary attacks from beings below the level of demigods, as it serves as both a host for an artifact and a contract partner. Of course, such restoration requires an enormous amount of energy—something even a kingdom might not be able to afford! That’s why, when summoning creatures proved useless but there was still time left, Donald tried his best to recover some energy to accelerate the recovery of the Book of Truth.