A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 485 Comparing Prices - Part 5

"I'm not sure that's how it works..." Pauline responded with a wavering smile, as she continued to lead them down the various rows of streets, past the noble sections, and then past even the yellow-shirted area, until they began to hear the clang of metal, and the crowds began to thin.

"What's this?" Oliver asked, as he looked down the comparatively quiet street. Quiet from the lack of people, but not from the lack of work. There were several blacksmith stalls set up, with one permanent building affixed between them, where a man was beating a red-hot glowing lump of steel into shape on an anvil.

Oliver could help but think it dangerous to have a forge right next to a building made of wood.

"Do you mean the lack of people?" Pauline asked. "Yes... These are more specialty goods, so the crowds tend to be smaller."

"Hm... Seems kind of sad, to see the swords so out of the way," Oliver said, as he passed by a tent, where a row of shining blades hung from a rack, and a man idled his time away polishing another.

Then he glanced at the sign. Ten golds for a sword. No wonder... If your prices were that high, the lack of a crowd wasn't much of a problem. You only needed a few customers to keep you afloat.

These weren't basic military swords either. Even the worst of them was crafted to be unique, with engravings on the hilt, and jewels in the pommel. Some of the more expensive ones even had patterns along the blade.

They were incredibly pretty. He caught Blackthorn looking at them with just as much interest as he.

He paused outside a stall where there stood a rack of spears. Kolan had helped ignite an interest in the spear for him... Or at least, an appreciation for other weapons. He'd found himself wanting a weapon of his own that he could practise with.

Glancing at the prices, though, that seemed unlikely. Less so than the swords, but they were still mightly expensive. Five golds for even the worst of them. He quickly moved on, before he caught the attention of the store owner, and the man tried to pressure him into another buy.

"The alchemists have a few stalls at the end of this street," Pauline informed him, pointing towards where she meant.

Oliver could see three scattered stalls with some rather grim-faced tradesmen working their craft between them. None of their tents looked particularly... enticing. In fact, one of them had a rather sizable hole chewed through the side of its wax lining.

"I've never actually been to one of these before," Amelia confessed.

"Corpse melter?" Oliver asked.

Another sigh. "A drop will decompose rotting flesh ten times faster than normal."

"And on live flesh?" Oliver asked the obvious question. The boy just shrugged in response.

"What's this ball?" Amelia asked, retrieving a metal ball seemingly from thin air. Oliver hadn't even seen her disappear.

"Explosive," the boy said with a vague shrug.

"Explosive?" Oliver asked. "A weapon, then?"

A shrug again. "Maybe, if they want to use it like that. Good for clearing rocks."

Oliver shuddered, if it was good for clearing rocks, then it'd be just as good at blowing apart bodies. "Do they use this in battle?"

"Mm, no, too unstable. Good for monster hunting, though," he said. Oliver wanted to clarify what he meant by unstable, but Amelia was raking through a chest, pulling out a vile of something else.

"And this?" She asked. It was stuffed in a glass container just like the potions, yet it had been forced in the chest amongst other items. Oliver couldn't help but think that was a poor idea, given the likelihood of the glass breaking. That explosive ball that Amelia had pulled out seemed pretty heavy, after all.

"Fullburn," the boy said. "Burns for longer than oil, and hotter. Good for smelting ingredients."

Oliver shuddered again. Good for ingredients, and likely good for the battlefield as well. He wondered just how many of these alchemist inventions were already in use in warfare. He did recall that Lombard was known for his underhanded tactics in the East. Perhaps he'd be a user of this sort of thing.

"Uhm, listen, I don't know how eager you are for ingredients," Oliver began, not entirely sure if it was worth even asking the boy – he hardly seemed interested in them, after all. "But I have some Hobgoblin flesh that needs selling."