The Industrialist

Chapter

The Axiom Trench delighted with people from different places. Knowing the nearing of Demetrian Season, the Outsiders panicked with various commodities they placed in their bags.

One man had a cart full of six water jugs, containing at least 50 liters each. His four male kids helped him drag the cart around as their father purchased heavy piles of canned goods. A woman beside him, probably the man's wife, hugged a plastic full of spices and vegetables.

The genetically modified vegetables that the planters acquired during illegal trades inside the surviving cities were used for farming. Lance had a few tastes of those vegetables – feverfew leaves, Twilight sprouts, and Aphrom beans, they tasted like plastic. The advantage of acquiring modified vegetables is because of their price. Meat and canned goods were pricier than vegetables.

One fascinating mother, who had two children beside her, gathered weapons hanging on her shoulder. And two small rifles too for each of her children. She bought ammo, a box full of them, from the neighboring merchant near Merchant One's stall.

Lance was surprised by the sight, captivated by it, which somehow had provided him the worry. He suddenly thought about hoarding supplies too for the Demetrian Season. Luckily, the panic hoarding only applies to the Outsiders where the trade travels were minimal as it implied safety among the traders.

The Axiom Trench offered wide variations of goods and by analyzing it, there was a wide world of Outsiders thriving and farming outside the City walls, and their traded goods fell in one major marketplace – the Axiom Trench.

"Have you ever been to one of the Outsider Encampments?" Lance asked Damian as they walked side-by-side.

"Yeah, for numerous times already. I don't just carry traded goods in Trench, I carry them also in Encampments." Damian answered.

"What is it like there? The encampments."

"You can't imagine kid. You can see utter discomfort. You will pity the children the most. And the constant risk of Abominant attack is there. They can't sleep peacefully."

"We are lucky to live inside the walls."

Calculating the possibility of such risk of Outsiders, was beyond Lance's comprehension. He never visited one of the Outsider's encampments before.

"We are lucky in that sense. The sense of safety. But being a rebel like us, we are never safe. Jefferson had this mission for us, more on infiltrations which pose a greater risk of capture from the police."

"Infiltrations? What do you gain from it?"

"Mostly espionage and sabotage. Jefferson suspected that the City's budget had somehow allocated to a more sinister weapon. And of course, we are trying to cripple the police form slowly." Discover hidden content at empire

They reached Merchant One's stall.

"Oh, it is the famous band of foolish brothers!" Merchant said after he attended an old man who bought a box of locally grown cigars.

"Merchant, your business is booming nowadays," Lance said with a smile even though knowing that the senior Trencher had a bitter expression. Lance used to tease Merchant like he teased Roger from the market.

"Booming! Nah, you got it wrong, kid. Merchants increased our prices because the supply is decreasing. The farmers tend to trade themselves from other neighboring encampments. Foolish, stupid! Those feckers!

They are just destroying the trade values of merch!" Merchant ranted.

"What do you mean? I mean, look at you. There are a lot of people around here."

"Yes. But They are just buying in Axiom nowadays if they cannot find any more supplies outside. The Trench is now the secondary trade center of Outsiders. Foolish people did this. They don't know the consequences."

Lance knew that in trading, unregulated trade centers such as the Outsiders could disrupt the merchandise retail pricing. The Outsiders tend to buy outside, direct to farmers, and the Trench to acquire cheaper merchandise.

"There must be somebody that can regulate it,"

"There is no helping it, kid. If you live long enough, you'd know that it's hopeless… Ok. I got a lot of customers coming in, what do you need?"

"Energy Accelerator!" Finally, the equipment was only a matter of a few transactions, and he could already acquire it.

Merchant laughed hard. "I know you foolish!"

"Well, do you still have it or not?"

Merchant smirked once again, a small snot accumulated on his upper lip. "Ok. Ok. 4000 units!"

"What! You said months before that's 3000 units!" Lance retorted.

"All prices are increasing, kid. Including your Energy Accelerator."

Lance knew that Merchant only took advantage because of the season. However, the Energy Accelerator was not a Commodity.

"It's not even a commodity, Merchant. C'mon. You gotta be kidding me."

Merchant held his deathly stare towards the kid. His fists clasped the edge of his display table, and his eyes bulged toward him.

"You gotta face it, kid. You can't get one of these here in Trench."

"How about a bundle then?

Lance saw buckets full of metallic scraps, all common levels from the looks of it. Rusty metals filled the buckets. Screws, bolts, rods, and others.

"Bundle? What do you mean, kid? You probably daydreamin'."

"I will accept the 4000 units of Energy Accelerator if you give me that," Lance pointed to Common-level materials that were unkemptly piled against the wall at the far back of the store.

"Why? Nobody wanted those!" Merchant said as he squinted to where Lance pointed.

"How much does that weigh?" Lance asked.

"150 kilos maybe, or more."

"Give me the Accelerator for that price and those 150 kilos of metal scrap. It will unclutter your space. I know you like it when these slow-moving items move."

Merchant unclasped his fists from the table and sauntered to the piles of scrap, and stared at them for a long awkward silence. It was equivalent to his height and wingspan. He shook his head upon looking at it. He looked at his other racks that held his other items, and they were almost exhausted. He shook his head again. Somehow, the inventory replenishments did not come.

Merchant cursed again.

"So?" Lance asked.

"Ok, kid. You got a deal." Merchant responded as he turned back to the kid.

Lance dealt it with a bundle as a Scrapper he could turn common-level materials into a marketable one just by fabrication. The 150 kilograms of scrap materials could be cleaned from rust back to their original state and removed from unnecessary plastics that mixed with the metallic materials, then market them to SteamHaven's metal-forging companies.

Probably Ultrasteel for he had his recent dealings when he was a TOR.

His estimate, for the 150 kg of scrap materials, he could monetize them for about 350 to 500 units. From his assessment, just his first look, he could fabricate the scraps into refined Common-level metal scraps for 2 units per kilogram. Forgers would melt these kinds of metal and process them into any desirable form.

"Where can I find impure gold?" Lance asked to the annoyed Merchant. A wave of customers swarmed him again, and he answered them so fast and dealt with them so deftly, exchanging units like there was no need for mathematics.

"Kid? Gold, you say?" He said simultaneously speaking to one of his customers asking for a hunting knife, heat powered. Merchant had a lot of bladed weapons, including laser knives, mini swords, and even daggers.

'Bloodbath,' Lance thought about the Demetrian season.

"Yes, the impure ones. The grade that we used in wirings," Lance said.

"Ah. Uncommon Gold. Impurity fifty." Merchant said.

"Do you have impurity forty?" Lance asked.

The impurity number depicted the amount of impurity percentage in gold. The closer to pure gold the better but would entail a greater price.

"It would cost yah." Merchant said.

"How much?"

"200 units per kilo for impurity forty gold," Merchant said.

As expected, Trenchers would increase the price at anything.

"Not again, Merchant! We are buying impurity forty for about 150 units per kilogram inside the City," Lance sneered.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. I told you, kid. Demetrian season is coming. The higher the prices of commodities the higher prices of everything else.

You know Diesel nowadays increased 10% of its price? That's absurd of a price hike, kid. Absurd! Those feckers wanted to control everything."

There was truth about it as also Damian told him about Diesel prices. They would drain the Rebel's reserves during the Demetrian season as their major fuel for their generator in the prison.

"Master, scanning available units," Jasper whispered.

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[Currency] – 13,500 units

Travel Objective: Acquire Energy Accelerator – 4000 units

Acquire Impure Gold slabs for wiring – 800 units

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"Ok. Done, Merchant. I need four kilograms. That's 800 units right?"

"Yes. Yes. Pay me faster, I have a lot of customers waiting." Merchant hurriedly went back to his storage room with another Trencher kid to get the Energy Accelerator.

"That would be 4800 units all in all," Merchant said with a smile after he placed the Energy Accelerator in front of Lance.

He was closer now to the assembly of his Ultragenerator. What he would work on was the acquired knowledge for such assembly.