Interspecies Trader

There were also floating buildings, hovering above the rest of the city. The place itself was huge. Considering its architecture, or lack thereof, it was hard to tell how many lived there. Yet, I wouldn't be surprised if its population was in the hundreds of thousands. On top of that, it gave a feeling of an old medieval city for some reason. I couldn't see any sort of advanced technology anywhere, unlike what was common inside the dome.

The mix of a bit of everything created a messy feeling, but at the same time, it gave a vibrant feeling of life to the place.

This sensation was accentuated by the residents. If the city was chaos, its inhabitants offered the most colorful sight I had the pleasure of witnessing in my life. When I learned there was more than one species in the outside world, I somehow imagined that something like five of them would share the world.

How wrong was I. Everywhere I observed, my eyes came across a creature that looked like nothing alike the previous one. There were bipedal species, quadrupedal ones, and even some that had more legs than this. As if that wasn't enough, a good number of them were simply flying around as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Some felt close to humans in anatomy while others were more distant, with characteristic features. As for their ranks, most of them were between rank 0 and rank 4, with the occasional rank 5 here and there.

While I was standing gaping at the view, the ground started to tremble at periodic intervals. I turned toward that direction and my mouth probably opened so wide that my jaw muscles could have become strained. A giant being was walking peacefully in front of us, going on with its business. It was probably more than three meters high, and the ground was shaking at each of its steps. The most incredible thing was that it was accompanied by a small bird-like species, seated comfortably on its shoulder, and the two of them couldn't have created a more unlikely pair.

"What are you staring at?"

I was interrupted by Selva, who didn't seem fazed in the least by the view of the city.

"Huh? Ah… Well… It's nothing."

I felt stupid at this moment but I couldn't help it. There were probably hundreds of different species going around and my brain was a bit overwhelmed right now.

"Anyway, You're safe now that we reached Geola. I'm going home. See you."

"Wait a second. I still didn't thank you properly."

"It's fine. I only did what I had to."

"Please at least tell me how I can contact you again."

"I live here too. Just go to the Mimdo martial center and ask for me."

Just like that, she hurriedly left, leaving me alone in a foreign city full of foreign creatures. For a long time, I just stayed where I was, admiring the view of the inhabitants passing by. It was as if I would never get tired of it. Some looked strong and rugged but others seemed furry and fluffy, to the point I wanted to try touching their fur to check how it felt.

Eventually, I noticed that the sun was going down. I couldn't stay here forever and chose to move forward and truly enter the place. There wasn't any partition between the inside and the outside of the city so I just entered by walking. A few of the inhabitants watched me curiously but none of them hindered my way. After strolling aimlessly for some time, I arrived at a sort of open market. Since it was the end of the day, some of the merchants were already tidying their stalls.

This place ignited my trader interest, just like the market in the dome did. I checked the goods they offered, wondering how different it was from the inside world. The first thing I found out was that the writing system very much resembled the one humans used. While I didn't know a lot about it, I still remembered the numbers and realized they were the same. This was great news to me. I was immediately able to examine the goods and their prices.

I was quickly able to confirm my initial guess. For unknown reasons, this outside world was technologically less advanced than the inside world. Most of the products felt like they came from a historical movie I could watch in the previous world. There weren't any selnic items as far as I could see. Instead, there were enchanted tools and weapons, the sort that had been discarded centuries ago in my world due to their inefficiency compared to selnic items.

The other thing I noticed was that the prices were a lot more normal than inside the dome. It seemed like most goods were available in reasonable quantities and there weren't any hiked prices like for water and food in dome 82. In fact, the enchanted items were the ones that seemed to fetch quite good coins compared to the rest.

"Thief! Thief!"

Everyone in the market turned around at the sudden shout. I witnessed a small and rapid species running away from a stall while holding something in between their arms. The stall owner, who had two vertical horns together with white hair, was on the other side of the stall and couldn't react in time to pursue it. He watched the thief run away with whatever it stole with horror and despair.

As an aspiring trader, thieves were the sort of people I hated the most. Thinking that this would allow me to easily create a connection in this place, I checked that no one was looking at me and teleported high in the air. I wasn't too worried about being seen anyway since people were flying all around the city. I was just one more of them. From there, I had a perfect view of the thief running away at a swift pace, glancing behind them from time to time. As soon as they left the main street, they jumped into a dark empty alley. This was perfect for me. I teleported right in front of them, and they collided with my space shield, letting out a cry of surprise and pain. They were sent rolling to the side and let go of their loot. Before they could understand what happened to them, I took the stolen pouch and teleported back high in the air.

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