Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2) (20 page)

“Sir, we cannot pay more than that for goblin souls.” explained a woman with bright green hair. She was a local manager hired to run the franchise by the franchise owner.

Scott frowned at the manager then shook his head. “I just saw how much you charge for these things. How can you try to buy them from me for five percent of the retail value and call it a fair deal?”

“Our sales prices and purchasing prices are not the same. Goblin souls are not difficult to acquire if you have the proper skill specializations or just defeat a lot of goblins. We don’t need to purchase them for more than the offered amount.” replied the woman, anger lacing her words.

He snorted at her. “Fine, I’ll sell them elsewhere. Your trade license ends at the gate. I’ll set up shop up the road a bit and sell them at one-fourth of your asking price. Hell I’ll do that with every lore ring I find.”

“You can’t do that! The trade agreement between towns and the merchant guild clearly states that no one...!” The woman began to rail at Scott in a most undignified and unprofessional manner. How she had managed to keep her position for so long was anyone’s guess.

He interrupted her with brutal precision. “Why do I care about that? I’m not a merchant. You can’t control trade outside of towns to any great extent. The only thing the guild really has a strangle hold on are professional grade lore skills and healing tonics. If I sell anything else outside of their network it is unlikely to stir up trouble, at least not till I am done severely undercutting your store.”

Scott had asked Rhea a lot of questions regarding how retail worked in this world. She had known about the health potion sales limitations, so he had decided to become as knowledgeable as possible regarding such things.

The manager glared hatefully at Scott. She was about to retort angrily, but another customer entered the store. Her personality changed completely upon the arrival of a potential paying customer. She ignored Scott and moved to greet the newcomer.

Scott decided to end the pointless negotiation. The manager did not seem to understand professional courtesy. Worse, she did not comprehend the simple fact that selling something for twenty times the amount that it cost to purchase it is an insult to the people who actually acquired the item for you. Making a profit was one thing, a fine thing. Why would anyone even bother to sell to your store if they could make more selling items on their own outside of town? Most people sold their junk items to stores so that they could avoid having to do that sort of thing.

None of the other shop owners in town had tried to undercut him so badly. A few of them had even paid him fifty percent of the retail value for the items that he had brought them. Why did this shrew think that she was entitled to such a high potential profit on items that were rare drops?

Scott decided to cut his losses and leave. On the way out of the store a screen popped up.

<<< * >>>

Thank you for visiting the Meaden branch of Regal Alice! You are listed as a VIP by the master franchise owner. Would you like to take a survey to inform her of the level of service that you have received at this branch?

[Yes | No ]

<<< * >>>

“I’m a VIP?” Scott smirked then narrowed his eyes in a dark and suggestive manner while looking at the screen. Why yes, yes he would like to take a survey.

He accepted the offer and answered all of the questions negatively. How bad was the service? The service was one star out of five, easily. The prices were terrible. The management did not know how to talk to potential customers. When prompted to write a few parting thoughts he went into detail about his beliefs on proper retail courtesy.

By the time Scott finished with the survey and hit the submit button the manager had finished speaking with the new customer. A screen appeared before her. She blinked, obviously surprised at its sudden appearance. She stared at it for a moment.

“A negative survey review? How can that be? I know all of the VIPs who come here regularly.”

Scott heard her and shook his head. He had not been aware of that VIP status before. He did not allow that to deter him from using it to screw with the green haired harridan. He could not resist bashing her over the head with it. “Not all of them. Next time I visit with Regal Alice, I’ll be sure to remind her of just how much I enjoyed your customer service.”

The manager’s eyes went wide at the realization of what she had done. He had been dressed so poorly that she had not considered it to be a problem. “Sir, I...”

“Save your sirs for someone who cares. You treated me like most people would treat a wet dog rolling around on a fancy couch. Good luck with your employment review whenever that comes around.”

The manager stood there with her mouth gaped open. What had she done?

Scott left the store and headed toward his room at the inn. His armor would not be repaired for another two days. The damage had been quite extensive and he suspected that the local armorer was not as good as the one at Victory Station.

“Not a bad haul, though.” He had made a bit over thirty-six thousand Fayth from the crappy loot that the goblins and other monsters had dropped during the battle, plus half of the loot from the three day hunting binge with Rhea. When everything had been settled, he had earned over one hundred thirty thousand Fayth in the last four days.

He would have had another fifteen thousand Fayth if he had sold the goblin souls, but selling them for that price when they were sold in the shop for twenty thousand each would be an insult to his sensibilities. He would have understood offering twenty to thirty percent due to the profit margins and time it would take to sell the items. Five percent was just abusive.

“Wait, wait!” called a voice from behind him. The manager from the store was running toward him as fast as her stiletto heels could take her.

“What is it?” asked Scott irately. As far as he was concerned, he was done with her.

The manager tripped and nearly fell to the ground, but she was close enough that Scott was able to reach out and catch her. She looked at him thankfully. “I...”

“Yeah? Like I said, what is it?”

She righted herself and then said, “I did not know you were a VIP, sir. We have a different pricing scale for people of your quality.”

Scott snorted at her. She did not think much of his quality earlier. He truly disliked people who treated people differently based on appearances alone.

She winced at his dismissive attitude, but persevered. “I’m prepared to offer you twenty-five percent of the retail value for your items, sir.”

“I want forty.” replied Scott. He knew damned well that she would balk at that price. Still, he did not want to make this easy for her.

“Sir, I... Forty is impossible. I’m not authorized to offer that much to anyone.”

“Are you sure about that? The next time I see Regal Alice, I’ll ask about her pricing policies.”

The manager grew pale, and started to shake a little. It was a strange reaction to be honest. Scott had never seen a manager so worried about what the store owner would think.

“T-the maximum I am allowed to offer to anyone is thirty-percent.”

“Give it to me then.” said Scott. He did not need more than one of the rings, but he did need more than five percent of their value.

“G-great! Just hold on one moment while I prepare funds for the sale.” She pulled up a menu screen and started fiddling with numbers.

<<< * >>>

You have received an offer of 90000 Fayth for (15) goblin soul lore rings.

Do you accept?
[Yes | No]

<<< * >>>

Scott wasted no time and accepted that offer immediately. It was a much better deal overall. The idea that she had wanted to pay him fifteen thousand for those rings before still bothered him, however. The store would sell them for three hundred thousand altogether.

Ninety thousand Fayth became his, and several unnecessary rings became the property of Regal Alice’s local franchise. Scott was absurdly pleased with the sale, though he refused to show it in front of the manager.

“Thank you for your business, sir.” said the woman. Her tone was civil, but Scott still sensed hostility. He wondered for a moment if she worked off of commission. Did she get a cut of the profits? Otherwise, she would be another type of person he disliked. She would be the sort of sales clerk or office worker who acted like the company’s money was their money to a degree far beyond what was necessary. Like an overly aggressive bill collector who took it personally when you owed the company money.

A new window appeared in front of him. He snorted loudly at the blatant nature of the request that he had received.

<<< * >>>

Geri Heinzel, manager of the Meaden branch of Regal Alice, has sent you a request to verify that you are satisfied with the transaction.

Has the transaction been completed to your satisfaction?
[Yes | No]

Do you have any comments to share regarding this transaction?
[Yes | No]

<<< * >>>

Scott looked at the message and then back at the green haired woman. Geri was obviously hoping that he would be satisfied so that he would opt to lessen the damage that his survey would do to her career options.

He thought about it for a moment, then clicked ‘yes’ to both questions. He was asked if he would like to type his response or speak it aloud. He chose to type it out. A new message screen popped up with an alpha-numeric keypad next to it.

<<< * >>>

There was an issue that occurred during my negotiations with the manager at the Meaden Branch of Regal Alice. It was only a misunderstanding. The manager went above and beyond her duty to satisfy my needs. Due to the previous issue, she promised me a permanent 30% sales rate when I sell my items at the Meaden branch of the store.

How generous!

<<< * >>>

Scott hit submit and the comment was accepted. It was not long before the manager received confirmation of the contract’s acceptance.

Geri also received a new message stating that a VIP customer had left a comment on one of her contracts. She read the message then blinked. Her left eye lid began to twitch spastically. “P-permanent thirty-percent...”

“Yep, permanent thirty-percent. So, generous.” replied Scott. She could either accept it as true or try to claim that he had lied. Either way she would have to explain the situation, and that might not work out well for her.

Geri began to cry a little. She imagined her beautiful profits soaring away.

Scott, on the other hand, did not care. He turned to leave. Doing so led to the start of a strange new event. He bumped into someone who he had not noticed before.

“Ouch! Hey...” cried out a feminine voice.

“What? Who?” asked Scott intelligently. Where did this girl come from? She was far too close!

“Oh no, look what you did! My ice cream...” said the girl. She was wearing a low cut dress, and somehow an ice cream cone had firmly planted itself within her cleavage.

Scott blinked at her then looked down at the odd sight. He still did not really know what was going on. Was she saying that he had bumped into her and did that? He had only turned around, how could he have done that? More to the point, wasn’t it a little cold to be wearing such skimpy clothing while eating ice cream?

“Look what I did? I didn’t do anything.” said Scott.

The red haired girl frowned at him then gestured toward her chest once more. “See, this is what you did!”

“How did I do that? I would have had to have been right on top of you and I’ve been standing in one place for a while now.” Scott spoke in slow, measured, tones. He wanted to make sure she understood that he took no responsibility for something like that. She would have had to have been right behind him and incredibly close.

“That’s how it is? You ruin my ice cream and molest my innocent breasts, but won’t take responsibility?” asked the girl with an edge in her tone. Strangely, she had not bothered to remove the ice cream from her cleavage, yet. Wasn’t that cold?

“Take responsibility? For what, you standing too close to me?” Scott had no idea what had gotten her so riled up. If anything she had obviously run into him.

She placed her hands on her hips and pouted. It would normally be a devastating psychological tactic. “What kind of man are you? You did this and refuse to take any responsibility?”

“I’m the kind of man who has no responsibility to take... and isn’t that cold?” said Scott.

“No responsibility! I was innocently walking along when you turned quickly and molested me with my ice cream cone! I should let the world know.” said the girl. She looked up at him with wide, expressive, eyes and a petulant expression.