Interspecies Trader

After a bit of thinking, I switched to a different method. If I couldn't get a job through the city, I could try to get it from the people who needed help directly. After moving further away from the city hall, just in case, I entered a shop. In there I talked to the owner directly and asked if they needed help while emphasizing that I was good at carrying stuff. It wasn't completely unbelievable because I had to go through a lot of physical training during my apprenticeship. Whoever said mages didn't need to be strong physically didn't know what they were talking about. A mage that stood still like a tower and spewed spells in all directions was the same as a dead mage in modern warfare.

I also had my male physique, which tended to be bigger than most of the women in this city. Unfortunately, the owner declared he didn't need help. I wasn't disheartened since I didn't think it would work from the get-go. I politely thanked her for her time, went out, and entered another shop, repeating the same process.

For the next hour or so, I tried my luck in several tens of stores, without any success. Eventually, I set foot into a selnic store manned by a brown-haired woman in her forties. After the usual translation ritual, I went straight to the point.

"Hello. I come from a faraway dome and I'm looking for work, if you have any. I'm strong and good at moving things around but I can do anything you need me to."

"Hm…"

She squinted her eyes while watching me pensively. She gave a haughty smile as she answered me.

"Well, I might have something for you. My store's stock is getting low and I need help to transfer some of the warehouse's goods to here. I can't pay you much for it, though."

It wasn't my first time dealing with people like her and I understood her true meaning. If I were to translate her words in trader language, it would be something like this: "I need to move the bulky selnic appliances from my warehouse to this store but I'm way too lazy to do it myself. You came at the right time. I'll make you do the hard work for me while paying you with pennies."

Despite knowing this, I had no choice but to accept her proposal. She was the first one willing to offer me something at all.

"What's the pay?"

"15 lods if you can move everything."

"How many items do I need to move?"

"About twenty."

That was yet another dirty move. I wasn't sure how far the warehouse was but I might need to do ten back and forth since each appliance was probably bulky and heavy. That meant a normal person wouldn't be guaranteed to finish the work today and as such, not guaranteed to get any pay at all. Plus, 15 "lods" was incredibly cheap for so many hours of work, no matter how I saw it. It would barely be enough to buy enough water for a day.

If I wasn't a spatial mage, I would have tried to negotiate something like 1 lod per item instead. I would earn less but at least payment would be guaranteed. I didn't need to worry about this, though.

"Deal."

She nodded with satisfaction and a hint of scorn in her eyes.

"Good. Come here."

She waved at me to follow her and we headed to the shop's storage space, which was indeed almost empty. In a corner, there was a cart with a flat bottom close to the ground.

"You can use this to transport the wares. Take this too."

She scribbled something on a small piece of paper, which I couldn't read but guessed was a sort of authorization. Next, she gave a me key and indicated to me precisely where the warehouse was.

"Don't even try to cheat me. The warehouse is shared between many shop owners and the guardian will monitor you closely. If you try to escape with one of my goods, I'll issue a search warrant on you and no dome will be far enough for you to hide."

"Don't worry, I won't."

"Alright. You can get started now."

I left together with the cart. For the first trip, I needed to do things normally. After around ten minutes of following her previous instructions, I reached the warehouse. I talked with the dubious caretaker, who eventually allowed me to open the woman's storage space. It was much larger than the one in her store and the twenty or so items there didn't even use a quarter of the space. I put two fridges on my cart and exited the warehouse.

Now was the interesting part. After crossing a corner, I checked carefully that no one was around and teleported to a small backstreet close to the shop, that I had located previously. Since the distance was short, it consumed very little sel. For a spatial mage like me, teleportation didn't feel much like anything. At one moment, I was in one place, and the next moment, in a different one. There was no fear or anxiety since I was in complete control. Just like that, the return trip only took me one minute instead of ten.

The store owner was surprised to see me coming back so fast but she didn't comment on it when she saw the two fridges on the cart. For the next trip, I also teleported on the way to the warehouse. The warden was startled to see me so soon. She didn't trust me when I said I had already delivered the goods. In the end, we had to go to the store together so that she could check it for herself.

Her expression was amusing as she verified that the fridges were indeed stored in the store's storage place. She alternated looking at me and the fridges a few times, not believing what she was seeing. She had no idea how I could have done this and for a good reason. She would never have imagined that I was a spatial mage, considering that they went extinct after the Protection.

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