Parallel (A Virtual Gamer's Story) [Vol.1 - Vol.4 Complete]

Chapter 17: Cashy or Kashi?

Two Months Later...

Kerta.

9:52 a.m. 13th Peniel 1091.

Over the past month, news of Cashy, the painter with a great love of money, spread around Kerta like wildfire. Summoned and Residents alike flocked to the strange daeben, who spent a couple of hours every day at Kerta's northern gate with his pet direwolf, to get a portrait of themselves or purchase one of his figurines or paintings. Warriors got their weapons and armor repaired and paid for the insane boosts from his delicious meals.

The daeben's flora paintings were the most sought-after of all his goods, and by the end of each day, when he finally closed up shop, he was raking in a profit of several dozen Syros.

Over the past month, Kashi kept a strict schedule. At first light, he would purchase the necessary materials and ingredients for his crafts from the shops. Afterward, he spent three hours in the morning repairing equipment and cooking morning meals for adventurers heading out to the fields or dungeons. Following this, he would go hunting with Kira. Well, it was more like Kira would go hunting while Kashi painted and sculpted the products to be sold the next day.

Kashi also gave Kira pointers while she hunted, helping her to become an even more effective hunter. In return, he made sure to take full advantage of the corpses she left behind. The ability to gain the entire carcass of beasts was one advantage Kashi had over other Summoned. This phenomenon existed because Kira was not Kashi's pet but a native monster of the world who just happened to be tagging alongside the daeben.

Of course, the downside to this was the fact that Kashi and Kira did not share experience points. However, Kashi did not care about this as the lack of experience points paled in comparison to the boon of obtaining a full carcass, as animal drops other Summoned found rare were easily obtained by the daeben.

There was one other disadvantage to this, and one that actually hurt the daeben a little. Monsters killed by Kira did not drop any random loot. So, he could not get things like skill books, money, and weapons this way. Also, if he assisted the battle in any way, even if was a single distraction shot, the game would count that against him, and the beast would 'burst' into petals of light and leave random loot.

Well, tit-for-tat. The daeben swallowed the losses. After all, from the standpoint of a craftsman, the current situation could not have been any more advantageous. His endless supply of increasingly higher-level meat meant he effectively had a monopoly on the chef business. At the very least, some Summoned who tried to copy his business were mortified to find they could not match his productivity.

Just as the gods of capitalism intended, it was not long before copycats began to pile around the northern gate to leech off the daeben's success. Several Artists, Chefs, and Blacksmiths sent by various guilds suddenly popped up around the daeben and began to undercut his business by selling similar products and services at lower prices. The situation did not immediately take a nosedive as the daeben's name and consumer-friendly business practices enticed some consumers to remain.

Unfortunately, the guilds could afford to take certain losses in the short term. They severely undercut the daeben's prices to the extent even some of Kashi's most loyal customers could not resist the temptation and switched to the other salesmen.

Kashi found he was not as annoyed by the guilds' interference as he had thought he would be. This was because, even though he had been making an enormous profit, most of his skills had stopped improving because most customers asked for similar products.

If there was one thing the daeben had learned during his time as a craftsman, it was the fact that uninspired products significantly slowed down the progress of skills. As proof, despite all the works he had done, his Handicraft, Painting, and Sculpting skills was stuck at Beginner level 9, refusing to enter the Intermediate level.