Chapter 746: Outrageous! Fair Trade in the Underground Black Market

The merchant at this stall stared intently at Jier and his companion, certain that he would make a sale today.

But to his surprise, Jier only gave a cursory glance at the stall, which displayed many short knives and daggers on its wooden shelves, before calling Mr. Scott to head to the next one.

"Hey, hey? My goods are all top-quality, you know? This customer, won't you come over and take a look?"

The merchant at this stall spoke in a rough, gruff voice, clearly not his natural tone, but one he was deliberately putting on.

Jier shrugged: "Sorry, I'm not exactly short on those kinds of tools for earning a living."

Once these words were out, the merchant slumped down into his seat, muttering under his breath about some damned bandits. Recently, many Bandit Groups that had been looting along the Shanglu had disbanded, so the streets were flooded with small weapons that the bandits had either crafted themselves or stolen.

Shops on the surface rarely sold such second-hand, blood-stained weapons and gear, so aside from being melted down into iron, the better-quality items were mostly brought to the Underground Black Market for trade.

Jier had previously led his men to wipe out several Bandit Group lairs in a row, and these short-bladed weapons were already enough to arm every person in his team.

He didn't need them, and he didn't think much of them.

Although the short knives on the wooden shelves looked decent enough to be considered fine goods, it didn't really matter what kind of weapons he provided to the Armed Civilian members of his team who lacked combat prowess.

They only needed basic weapons; what they truly lacked, and what actually influenced combat effectiveness, was the courage and skill for battle. Only with those as a foundation could the quality of the weapons in their hands affect their combat power.

Passing by this stall, Jier and Mr. Scott continued toward the next one.

"I thought you were in urgent need of these things."

"How could that be? My men already have enough equipment, perhaps even too much."

Jier shook his head, putting on a troubled expression: "After encountering attacks from Bandit Groups and defeating them, for every bandit, there was a weapon. These are the last things I need right now."

The next stall was named 【Sneeze】; it was a strange name, but compared to the goods on its shelves, the name felt quite clever.

This stall sold seasonings.

The most conspicuous items were several sacks of Coarse Salt, as well as Fine Salt kept in ceramic jars protected by hemp rope.

Since the Saint Hors Kingdom produced its own salt, the price of salt in this inland country was not high, and the general public consumed this yellowish Coarse Salt.

As for the snow-white Fine Salt, only the wealthy and the nobility could afford it.

In terms of price, there was a twenty-fold difference between the two.

A jin of Coarse Salt cost about five Gold Coins, while Fine Salt was priced at one hundred Gold Coins per jin. Considering that salt was something eaten every day, at every meal, even if the public could grit their teeth and afford it, they couldn't afford to eat it regularly.

As for Coarse Salt, one could buy a large chunk, take it home, smash it into pieces with a wooden or iron hammer, and then grind it into powder; if one ignored the bitter taste, it was hard to tell the difference when added to food.

Of course, this seasoning stall didn't just sell salt. It was just that as black-market goods acquired from bandits, what the bandits robbed most often were the salt-transporting Caravans.

As for other seasonings, the public usually only used fresh plant seasonings grown near their homes. Expensive, sun-dried southern seasonings were rarely looted by bandits, so in the Underground Black Market, these precious items were carefully protected on wooden shelves by the merchant using small metal cages.

Thinking Jier and his companion were wealthy, the merchant tried his best to recommend those 'cheap' but expensive seasonings, not knowing that Jier only wanted to buy some Coarse Salt to take back.

Considering the need to find a safe place to settle down later, and given the current situation, it was hard to say when the next opportunity to buy such necessities as Coarse Salt in bulk would come, so Jier felt he should buy a bit more this time.

Especially since these things in the Underground Black Market were truly cheap.

"Sir, sir, come take a look at this, Island Pepper with a charming aroma, a valuable item rarely seen locally. I won it in a gambling match against a bandit who didn't know its worth. Such a small bag, only ten Gold Coins! If the roads weren't so difficult to travel right now, I would have transported it to a big city myself to sell! Guaranteed triple the profit, just for this little bag, look, this opportunity only exists now!"

Upon hearing "triple the profit," Jier's eyes, which had been focused on the quality of the Coarse Salt, were pulled by his ears toward the very back of the stall, to a dish of granular spices inside a small metal cage by the merchant's hand.

Leaning in to look, he found that besides the strange color—the spices were purple with blue granules—they smelled quite good; just a slight sniff made him feel refreshed.

Even if these spices weren't used to make luxurious food, they were very effective just for smelling to clear the mind.

But Mr. Scott, who was beside him, only glanced at them and secretly held back the eager Jier.

He whispered: "Don't be fooled by this person."

"What? Is there a problem?"

Jier was a bit puzzled. The item looked like a spice, smelled like a spice, was named a spice, and was priced like a spice; was something wrong?

To this, Mr. Scott sneered and explained in a low voice: "The Island Pepper produced by coastal countries is not purple with blue; its color is pure purple. The blue indicates it has become damp and moldy. However, because the spice itself has a strong scent, if you don't look at the color, you can't smell the mold. Once you can smell the mold in the spice, it means it has all gone bad."

It was a close call; Jier had heard the explanation from Mr. Scott, who was a Steward of a Merchant Guild, otherwise he really would have been cheated by the black-hearted merchant at this stall.

Triple the profit; the reason the other party gave for not taking that profit himself was also perfect. If one wasn't careful, one would really be fooled.

With a cold snort, Jier stopped looking at the expensive spices and instead pointed to the yellowish Coarse Salt in the burlap sacks at the front of the stall: "I want five sacks of Coarse Salt, how is the price calculated?"

Seeing that this black-cloaked Jier would not buy his spices, the merchant glared fiercely at the meddlesome Mr. Scott, then replied in a less enthusiastic voice: "Are you calculating by weight or by the sack?"

"How is it calculated by weight? How is it calculated by the sack?"

Jier asked.

"By weight, we carry the sacks of Coarse Salt to the heavy-duty scale provided by this Underground Black Market to weigh them and calculate the cost, ignoring the weight of the sacks themselves; for however much the Coarse Salt weighs, you pay the price written on the sign."

"And by the sack, I state a price per sack, you state a price, and we finally agree on a price that satisfies both parties, without using the scale; you pay the price per sack and have someone carry them away directly."

The black-cloaked merchant sat on a wooden chair next to the stall, crossed his legs, and explained to Jier.

The former was more troublesome, but at least there would be no mistakes. The latter was much simpler, and there was a chance to buy things at a lower price.

However, the origins of the goods in the Underground Black Market were not very legitimate. In Jier's view, the items here were already much cheaper than those in the shops above, and as for negotiating the price of Coarse Salt, it wasn't impossible; at the very least, Jier knew Mr. Scott beside him certainly had the ability to do so.

But he had many things to do today and didn't have the leisure time in this place, which was like an underground tomb, to haggle and bargain with this dishonest merchant.

It wasn't worth it.

"In that case, let's calculate by weight. How much does this sack weigh?" Jier asked, pointing to the burlap sack containing Coarse Salt.

The merchant rolled his only visible eye, then said indifferently: "Eighty kilograms per sack. How many sacks do you want?" (As before, the units of weight appearing in the story use modern units familiar to everyone.)

Eighty kilograms was quite a lot. If a young man were working in the fields, he wouldn't be able to finish a jin of salt in a month; it was about the amount needed for two people working. One such sack of Coarse Salt would be enough for nearly four hundred people to eat for a month. Of course, this was assuming all four hundred people were doing manual labor every day and needed to replenish their salt intake.

Considering Jier's situation, calculating based on salt usage for the next year, he would need at least twenty sacks of salt. Of course, he wouldn't actually need that much, because many people in the team wouldn't be participating in heavy manual labor, and there wasn't that much work for them to do; many people just walked every day and then rested.

Jier also didn't need to think so far ahead for those Refugee people.

Therefore, considering only half a year, Jier said: "Then I want ten sacks of Coarse Salt, you weigh them and calculate the price."

The merchant had no objections. After confirming Jier's willingness to buy, he called over someone from the Underground Black Market to carry the ten sacks of Coarse Salt to the heavy-duty scale not far away to be weighed.

The place was not far; there was a heavy-duty scale right at the 'intersection' ahead, which was also provided by the Thieves Guild for the Underground Black Market.

While the Coarse Salt was being weighed, Mr. Scott told Jier that in the past, the black market used the scales of individual merchants, which led to many conflicts and problems. If a stall's scale was inaccurate, those who felt cheated would attack. And if the buyer's own scale was inaccurate, it was also easy to cause conflict.

Often these transactions were accompanied by brawls and bloodshed, which also led to the black market being quite chaotic, and both the merchants setting up stalls and the merchants buying goods had to carry thugs and weapons for self-defense.

Very quickly, after moving and weighing the handcart back and forth a few times, the people at the Underground Black Market provided a fair and accurate weight; of course, this did not include the weight of the sacks or the money for them, but those who chose to purchase in this manner would not care about the cost of a few sacks being charged as Coarse Salt.

After paying, just as before, the people from the Thieves Guild here would arrange for these ten sacks of Coarse Salt to be delivered to the location specified by Jier.

"Tell me, if someone used this method of concealing their identity to buy a huge pile of cheap, useless things and piled them up in front of a rival Merchant's shop, making it impossible for the other party to open for business, how should such a thing be handled?"

Jier had a whimsical thought, recalling pranks from his previous life where people would impersonate others to order food to mess with them, so he posed this question to Mr. Scott.

Mr. Scott was quite speechless; he had thought last night that Knight Jier was a very capable and impressive young Knight, but looking at him today, he was a young man after all, and his ideas were always so boring.

"Well, if someone really did that, then this guy who used that organization to play tricks on others and cause trouble for a rival shop—I can guarantee that within a few days, he would be found lying in a dirty, foul-smelling alley."

"Dead?"

"Could be dead, could be not. There are some things that cannot be touched in a joking manner, such as the dignity of large organizations."

Jier nodded, and the two continued walking forward.

Subsequently, at a stall named 【Want to Eat Eggs?】, they purchased a batch of Egg Chicken with cages, and of course, Roosters to serve as breeding stock.

The poultry of the Refugee population had long since been eaten or stolen on the road; even if they hadn't forgotten to bring their families' poultry when they fled their respective hometowns, the various twists and turns along the way meant they still hadn't managed to keep their various livestock, including the poultry.

Some people hadn't even managed to keep their own family dogs, and if things got any worse, they would have lost their children.

Fortunately, even the Bandit would not go to snatch the young children of the Refugee population, because to the Bandit, small children were noisy and troublesome, far less desirable than snatching the Farmer women they took a fancy to.

Of course, since the Underground Black Market sold poultry, there were naturally stalls selling livestock as well.

It was just that there was a rule against letting large livestock enter this place, lest the large livestock, feeling anxious and nervous from not being able to see the outside world, throw the Underground Black Market into chaos.

Therefore, the Thieves Guild used a method to replace on-site inspection of the livestock.

Simply put, they would inspect the goods on behalf of the customers purchasing items in the Underground Black Market, and then they would issue a true and reliable document to mark the specific condition of the livestock.

The good points and the bad points were all marked out, allowing the purchasing guest to directly understand through text what the actual condition of the livestock on the display wooden board was like.

It had to be said that it was ironic: the Thieves Guild, who were Thieves themselves, could instead provide a true and reliable fair venue for the Merchants who feared them.

And the black market, which had been spontaneously organized by Merchants, had been extremely chaotic before the Thieves Guild took over, even requiring specialized corpse collectors to deal with the bodies of those who died from fighting in the black market every day.

At least that was what Mr. Scott told Jier.

Based on the actual situation he saw with his own eyes, Jier felt that Mr. Scott had not lied.

A kind of order, at least a public order that everyone recognized, no matter who maintained it—this kind of place truly needed some kind of order to function normally.

And that the Thieves Guild, which the Merchants wouldn't even dare to mention, was the one arranging to maintain the order here—it had to be said that this was a very ironic thing.

After buying the Egg Chicken and breeding Roosters, Jier again, at the livestock stall, experienced a very 'punk' moment by relying on the wooden boards displaying the livestock; he spent money to buy several Pack Horse he couldn't even see, just by looking at the descriptions of the situation in text and pictures on the boards.

This experience, it had to be said, was just too strange. Especially for Jier, it was too strange.

It felt like buying cars and motorcycles through an online shop at an offline physical store. Moreover, the offline physical store had no physical goods on display; the Merchant at the stall pointed at the wooden board with a drawing of a horse with a face full of confidence, telling Jier to buy boldly, and even patted his chest to guarantee that the livestock he received would look exactly like what was on the board.

Too punk; Jier didn't know how to even begin to complain.

Afterward, until noon, Jier and Mr. Scott kept spending money to buy, buy, buy in the 【Feng】-shaped Underground Black Market. Of course, these were all things that the common people would use daily, and the prices were not expensive.

After the previous example of 'Island Pepper', Jier didn't dare to spend money to buy those small, expensive items that the stall Merchants claimed would make a lot of money if resold.

On the contrary, Mr. Scott bought a few paintings sold at low prices, as well as a Silver Water Bottle, his voice revealing that he felt he had taken advantage of a bargain.

This made Jier very annoyed.