Infinite Realm

'There it is.'

Though it was his first time heading there, with the direction of a few players as well as a map of the entire West district, Sato was able to locate the trade-house.

After making a few turns from the main road and heading deeper into the West district, Sato arrived at the Riverdale's trade-house without much hassle. Since it was a general economic building and somewhat of a store, it was located close to the public market; just a few metres away from it.

The trade-house was a 3 storey building (AN: American standard) painted with a deep shade of amber that stood just across the road to the public market. It had its courtyard as well as a small pavilion by the side for recreational reasons. Just the land size alone was more than any other store Sato had seen before. The materials used for the building's construction were high quality, roughly at the 2-star peak rank and 3-star rank, making the building itself a treasure. Though not as impressive as that of Grynx Merchandise, it was roughly on par with it, in the sense that just like the former, the trade-house could resist attacks from monsters and was valued at a price that could make the entire player population of Riverdale town go broke in heavy debts.

Two NPC guards clad in iron armour, stood side by side right in front of the gate. They were dressed in the official uniform for Riverdale's town's guards but with a few differences. This roughly implied that the trade-house was a building owned and operated by the town's government. In modern-day tongue, it would be called a State-owned enterprise(SOE). The aura from the guards was my h stronger than anything Sato had ever felt. It was even greater than that of the Kobold King!

'Anyone who dares to rob this building has my condolences.'

As these words crossed Sato's mind, he also began to lament why the town was deemed to be weak but had such formidable forces. In the goblin event, the NPCs present were indeed strong, but not as strong as these guys.

'It's probably the game's settings. If warriors as strong as these guys had participated in it, players would have been of no use in that event. We would end up as nothing more than spectators.' Sato thought.

He felt this explanation of his was accurate because just one of these guards was stronger than 2 or maybe 3 Kobold Kings. If about 3 or 4 of them had participated in the Goblin incident at Gnorka, they would be able to paint the entire battlefield red, with more than 100 goblin corpses sprawled on the floor in just 30 minutes.

At the top of the gate was a glaring banner that was stretched out, with the words "Riverdale's Tradehouse" displayed on it. As long as one was in the vicinity of the public market, it wouldn't be difficult to spot the building from far out since the other stores were only 2 storeys tall and none of them have off that luxurious feel that the trade-house did.

Walking through the gates of the trade-house's environment, Sato then went straight towards the wooden door that was as tall as two men stacked on top of each other. 

At the door was another guard but unlike the ones at the gate, it was a young boy who was dressed like an attendant.

"Welcome to Riverdale's Tradehouse." The kid bowed at Sato before proceeding to push the door open for him.

'Impressive.' Sato couldn't resist commenting in his head. The comment wasn't only because of the courtesy he had received but also the young boy's strength. The wooden door looked thick and was also taller than the boy by far. despite this, he was able to push open the door seemingly without much effort.

"Thank you." Sato replied. Even though he was in a game, Sato intended to treat every NPC as a real human being no matter their status.

Sato then proceeded to walk into the building where he was further stunned by the sight.

Similar to the interior of Grynx Merchandise's branch store in Riverdale, the trade-house was painted white but had a few majestic murals that used the ceiling as their canvas. Blue coloured streaks ran around the walls of the building in a disorderly yet mystical pattern, that gave the entire place an otherworldly yet refreshing feel. A few vases potted with exotic plants were kept at strategic locations in the building. Even the couches, sofas, tables, and counters were all designed in an orderly manner.

The entire interior design screamed an exotic yet simple design. Even if such a design was used in a building in reality, it would still be considered breathtaking.

'For a trade-house, this is truly spectacular.' Sato praised.

Unknown to him though, it was only the trade-house in Riverdale town that was like this. The others, though still impressive, couldn't be compared to that of Riverdale town. Even some cities' auction houses were roughly on par with Riverdale's trade-house.

The reason why Riverdale town's trade-house was different was that Riverdale town was the economic lifeline of Black Rock province. It was located at a certain juncture that made it possible for one to head to either Black Mountain town, Salt Springs town, and Black Rock city without much of a hassle. Because of this, most NPC traders who couldn't afford to stay in a city, based their businesses in Riverdale town due to the ease of transportation. As more businesses appeared, the economy of the town began to improve hence, there was enough money to go around the town and improve most of the facilities. Buildings like the Administrative Hall and the trade-house received the most attention and care, so they looked even more splendid than their counterparts in other towns.

Sato then glanced at the counters but was surprised to see a queue before each one. Though it wasn't really long, it wasn't all that short either.

'Ah. I forgot.'

Compared to the stores and stalls in the market, the trade-house sold various equipment, weapons, and materials at a cheaper price than the others. However, while it was true that to a seller, the trade-house seemed to have a lot of disadvantages since it sold their goods at a cheaper price, it wasn't so for the customers. This 'discounted price' was well appreciated by players so most of them would prefer to shop for their items here. Nonetheless, there were three major flaws to trade-houses otherwise the other stores would be pretty much empty and wouldn't make any earnings.

Similar to an auction house, the trade-house only sold goods that were sold to them by other players or NPCs. This meant that they wouldn't have every single item at any point in time but only the ones they had purchased. This was a problem for most players especially when they were in dire need of a certain product.

Take for instance if a player wanted to purchase an Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon like a spear or some other stuff. There was no guarantee that such a weapon would be available in the trade-house since not only were Upper-tier Mortal rank weapons quite rare to find in the fields but weapons like spears were even rarer. Rather than keep waiting for such an item to appear in the trade-house, it would be more advisable to just head over to a store and get a suitable one. After all, the items put on sale in the trade-house were abandoned items that players didn't need.

Another problem with trade-houses was the lack of consistency. You might find a nice weapon today but it won't be available the next. This was because the trade-house didn't specialise in selling certain goods but only the ones sold to them.

The last major problem with trade-houses was the fact that they lacked average commodities like HP and mana potions, water bottles, or edibles like bread and wine. A loaf of bread costs 3 copper coins on average but in a trade-house, it would be bought at 1 copper coin or so. A merchant wouldn't make a profit by selling such here but would instead suffer a loss. Hence, they preferred to sell such commodities to stores where they could make a profit. This lead to trade-houses lacking simple but necessary commodities like this. But for selling weapons and equipment, one would still be able to make a profit, though not as much as they would in an NPC store.

The greatest advantage of a trade-house over stores and stalls was the fact that the item would immediately be put on sale. So, for blacksmith starters and rune-smiths who wanted to become famous with their crafts, a trade-house was the best place to start from, in the absence of an auction house of course.

'No matter.'

Sato walked over to one of the shorter queues, which only had 3 people on the line, and stood in it.

Two minutes later and Sato was the last man in the queue. The attendant on the counter was attending to a player in front of him. All Sato needed to do was just to wait for the attendant to be done with the player and then it would be his turn.

Suddenly, a commotion arose from the entrance of the trade-house.