Chapter 6: First Delivery.

Shoving the ten contracts into his satchel, Tobi noticed that each contract took up a single slot inside. His 28 satchel slots now had only 12 slots left. The reason was pretty obvious; each contract was different and therefore weren’t the same item and couldn’t be stacked. The other slots were taken by his Merchant Map, Degrading Stone of Wealth, Basic Energy and Health potions, Scroll of Returning and the empty Leather Water Bottle. His sack on the other hand was still empty.

“Remember,” Leesa warned as Tobi finished preparing, “make sure to get them to sign the contract forms when you make the delivery, or you won’t get paid. Jameson will show you to the depository and help you gather the items. He will also help you plan your route if you tell him you’re new to the city. He’s been running deliveries for four years already and knows the city like the back of his hand.”

“OK,” Tobi agreed happily, “but who is Jameson, where can I find him?”

“He’s right there.” Leesa smiled, pointing to a youth with an odd limp. His right leg seemed to be slightly longer than his left and he had a small hunch between his shoulders. Other than that, he seemed to be rather well groomed, dressed in fine silk clothes with neatly combed mousey-brown hair.

Thanking Leesa for her help, Tobi made his way over to the small group of Merchants gathered together. When their conversation paused for the briefest moment, Tobi took the chance to interrupt. Coughing lightly and stepping forward, Tobi placed himself almost directly in front of the cripple.

“Excuse me, are you Jameson? I was told you can help me gather items I need from the depository for my deliveries.”

Up close, the hunched youth looked even younger than he first appeared. He couldn’t be more than sixteen if he were a day. Jameson in turn looked Tobi up and down before grunting, unimpressed.

“A bit old to be running errands aren’t you? What’s the matter, couldn’t cut it on your own in the big bad world?”

Blinking twice, Tobi hesitated and shrugged, “I’m new in town. This is a good way to get to know the area. Can you help me or not?”

“Hmph. This way.”

Following along as Jameson hobbled through the Guild, Tobi took in the highly decorated walls and meandered along slowly. Jameson’s slow hobble wasn’t exactly hard to keep up with, leaving Tobi plenty of time to inspect each and every painting they passed in the corridors.

Despite the slow walk, it wasn’t long before Tobi was leaving the guild through a backdoor on the opposite side of the building. Jameson said nothing the whole time and continued to maintain his silence as he made his way along the streets of Brackley.

When they finally reached the so-called depository, they were three streets away and standing outside a large, undecorated building. There appeared to be nothing special about the building at all—except for the fact it was surrounded by a stone wall with iron spikes on the top and had its own armed guard stationed at the gates.

The guards gave Jameson a brief nod as he passed and eyed Tobi for several seconds as he passed. Tobi tried to ignore the stares and simply followed along. He couldn’t quite shake the feeling of being stared at though and had to resist the urge to look back over his shoulder.

“Let me see your contracts.” Jameson said, speaking for the first time since they set off and holding out his hand.

Not sure which of the ten contracts were which, Tobi handed over all ten. Only four of them required getting items from the depository so it was only those that Jameson needed.

“You said you’re new in town, right?” Jameson noted as he leafed through the contracts, stepping into the building as he did so.

“Yes.”

“These contracts take you across half the city and back again. Do you have a Merchant Map with you?”

“Yes.” Tobi answered again, fishing the Merchant Map out of his satchel and showing it to him.

Walking up to a table and placing the contracts down, Jameson took the map and spread it out, using four gold coins from his own pouch to pin the corners down.

“New map?” Jameson asked, sounding surprised.

“Uh...my first map.” Tobi answered, not sure what he meant.

Jameson nodded his head slowly and frowned, “Starting from here, it’s probably best to deliver the cases of Sorrow Seeds first. See here? This is where the Alchemy Guild Warehouse is. It’s only two streets over and the Sword and Shield Inn is just down the road, beside the Warrior Guild training hall. From there, you want to go to the Smithery to drop off the Copper and Tin. Are you following me so far?”

Tobi was following the conversation perfectly. The reason Jameson stopped to question him however was due to the wide-eyed and shocked expression on his face. While Jameson was describing the routes and pointing out buildings, he’d been sliding his fingers across the map and making the map move all over the place. On top of that, he was able to zoom in and out the same way Tobi used Google Maps on his phone back in the real world.

“I didn’t know the map could do that…” Tobi admitted, pointing to the map that was currently zoomed in on a building marked with a Hammer and Anvil symbol.

“It’s called scrolling. All maps are capable of it, if they were made by a proper and legitimate cartographer. The Merchant Map is a little more special though, as you will find out as you travel around.”

“What do you mean?”

Jameson smiled and zoomed out on the map, “See how most of the map is blank, with only Brackley in view?”

Tobi nodded, looking at the now inch-sized brackley covering a tiny piece of an otherwise blank parchment.

“The blank area is called ‘The Fog’. As you travel around, the fog will be lifted and more of the map will be on display. Unfortunately, any area you haven’t visited in a long time will slowly be covered again. This appears to be a standard, low quality map, so the fog will start to reclaim the map after about a year. It also won’t work inside dungeons and other unique areas. You will need a higher quality map for that. Even the best map has limits though, so don’t expect too much.”

Happily nodding along to what he was being told, Tobi couldn’t wait to get his hands on the map again and try using it himself. It was only like using Google Maps on his phone, but it was still interesting, “How are they made?”

“Who knows?” Jameson chuckled, “Cartographers are rare, but Merchant Cartographers are even rarer. Only they know how to make these and they rarely take on apprentices. Maybe you could figure it out on your own—someone did have to think of it first after all—but I don’t know any cartographers that can make these unless they were taught by someone else first.”

After thinking about it a bit more, Tobi shrugged and smiled, “I’m just happy to know how to use it. Where do I go after delivering the tin and copper?”

Once Jameson finished explaining the delivery routes, Tobi was escorted deeper into the depository to collect the goods he needed. Why they called it a depository and not a warehouse though, Tobi couldn’t guess. It was as much a warehouse as anything else. It even had racks as high as ten meters with palleted goods stacked at the very top. How they got the goods up there would have to be left for another time as Tobi’s items were all on the ground floor and easy to gather.

Checking the items in his backpack and cross-checking he had everything, Tobi raised an eyebrow at how the items inside. The thirty ingots of copper stacked, marking a single copper ingot with a [x30] marker in the top right corner of the item slot box. The same thing happened with the thirty tin: A single ingot of tin was shown in the item slot with a [x30] in the top right corner. With the two cases of Sorrow Seeds and four casks of Farmers Ale, adding to a total of 66 items, only four slots of the 98 were taken. All things considered, it seemed his bag was a little excessive in how much it could carry.

The final delivery from the Guild depository was 40 sacks of Rye to be delivered to a Brewery on the other side of the city. The sacks stacked the same as the rest, taking up another slot of his bag and leaving 91 empty slots for him to work with.

“Not bad,” Jameson smiled as Tobi put the pack back over his shoulder, “is that a soul-bound pack?”

“A what?”

“If you don’t know then it probably isn’t. I’ve just never seen a pack that can hold so much and still look the same as it did before. Only soul-bound packs can do that. Unless it has a really large capacity. But then, considering how much you just put inside, your capacity must be nearly full, right?”

Thinking about all the space he still had left, Tobi shrugged, “I still have a bit of space left.”

“With so much capacity in your bag, why did you choose so few delivery contracts? You’re still a rank one contractor, right?”

“A what?”

“Really...where did you even come from? Didn’t they teach you anything back home? Guild rankings are based on your contract rank. Rank one contractors can only do delivery missions. After 100 contracted deliveries through the guild, you can raise your rank and do other contracts, such as running a market for the guild or joining the city guard as their Looter during an extermination mission. Rank three’s can be hired by the Travellers for dungeon explorations or run a shop on behalf of the guild. The higher your rank, the more the Guild will do for you and the more you can earn.”

Shaking his head and reminding himself that he was here to learn skills, not to live a second life as a merchant, Tobi smiled and explained that he didn’t care about the Guild ranking system. He only wanted to raise some starting capital and learn the area before he set off on his own.

“Well, it’s up to you.” Jameson smiled, leading Tobi back to the building entrance. Once they were outside, Jameson made sure Tobi knew what route he was taking and where he should head first. Only after Tobi reiterated the pre-planned delivery routes did Jameson give his blessing and watch Tobi leave.

Just as planned, Tobi walked two streets over and headed for the large building that matched the Merchant Guild Depository in both design and size. The map marked the building with a potion inside a crate, but the building itself had nothing to mark it for what it was: The Alchemy Guild Warehouse.

Once he dropped off the two cases of Sorrow Seeds, Tobi happily made his way toward the Sword and Shield Inn—only to run back again a minute later after realizing the Alchemist hadn’t signed for the delivery.

“What delivery?” The alchemist asked, smugly, “Did you see anyone make a delivery, Raynold?”

“ No sir.” A guard answered back without blinking.

Stumped at the blatant lie, Tobi felt his rage boil up and clenched his fist, “Oh really? So I didn’t deliver the Two cases of Sorrow Seeds?”

“Whether you did or not is not for me to say. What I am saying is that the place you delivered them was not here, and not to me. If you had, I would have signed the contract, obviously. If I had not signed it, you wouldn’t have taken them from your pack and handed them over. Would you?”

“I see.” Tobi seethed, “Of course, you are right. I definitely would have done it that way if I had really delivered them here.”

“I am glad you see things my way,” The Alchemist gloated happily.

“Of course, Sorrow Seeds aren’t my only delivery.” Tobi answered back, forming half an idea as he spoke, “I also have more than a hundred potions to deliver on behalf of the Alchemist Guild. Sadly, I think I might get mugged on the way. Oh well, have a good day.”

Turning and walking away, albeit somewhat slowly, Tobi hoped his half-baked idea would work. He got as far as the gate and onto the street before the Alchemist called out to him. Tobi, having already figured his idea failed and was worrying about what would happen next, turned on the spot and gave a big, wide smile, “Yes?”

“What potion’s are you delivering, and where to?” The alchemist asked.

“Potions? What potions? My memory is a little fuzzy. You see, I remember delivering to the Alchemist Warehouse, but my contract isn’t signed, so I’m not sure I did. Your face looks familiar though, did I deliver the Sorrow Seeds to you? Maybe we could clear this whole mess up.”

Grumbling to himself, the Alchemist reluctantly thrust out his hand for the contract. Tobi handed it over and the man signed it. The guard gave Tobi a brief nod and a partial smile from behind the Alchemists back. Once their business was concluded, Tobi turned to walk away again.

“Wait, what about our potions? Will you deliver them now?”

“Potions? I don’t have any such delivery.” Tobi chuckled happily, “Have a nice day.”

Still unsure whether Tobi had a delivery of potions or not, the Alchemist grumbled to himself and stalked back inside the building. Tobi paid him no mind and continued straight toward the Sword and Shield Inn. Whatever happened on the rest of the deliveries, he wouldn’t be making that mistake again!