Ch 37 Supply Run

  Waking up around 5a, I stretched. I felt good. Sleeping in the van, I felt secure. Knowing no one can come bother me, except Raven was a blessing. I knew exactly where I was and what I was doing. I decided to take a shower and change clothes. I had been wearing the same stuff for a few days. Didn’t want people to think I didn’t have more outfits.

  The shower was heavenly. I of course used my pristine wand on myself first. So I was just using the hot water to relax. Having a full bathroom in Sky Trail was a great idea. I could have used the tub, but I didn’t want to spend that much time in the water. Just rinse off a bit.

  Once I dried off I went through the clothes I did have. There was a lot. I picked out a pair of black briefs that had both durability and pristine enchantment. Then a pair of pants in dark grey, also with both enchantments. Then a dark blue shirt, still both enchantments. All the materials were some cotton alloy weave. It was softer than normal cotton but the weave was tighter than normal as well. Maybe some acrylic in it? Or what was it, rayon?

  “Raven, what fabric are these clothes made of? I quite like it.”

  “User is wearing fabric made of 30% cotton, 40% Rayon, 30% Acrylic.”

  So I was close to being right. “Designate this fabric as favorite number 1 please. Make the clothes with this fabric my designated go-to fabric. Sort it so that it’s always top choice when I’m getting dressed unless I specify otherwise. Alright? Is there a silk/rayon blend?”

  “Confirmed.”

  “Make that my favorite number 2. Or better yet, mark this as casual wear and that as professional wear. Ok? But always the clothes with both enchantments.”

  “Confirmed.”

  “I should have a durable outfit for battle wear. What’s the most durable material I have as clothing?”

  “User has a canvas/denim material that is likely the most practical to be durable with enchantments. User did not create outfits with this material.”

  “Alright, put that on my to do list. Or can you while I’m shopping?”

  “Confirmed.”

  “Alright. Let’s see what’s open this early, any big hobby stores?”

  “Not as of yet, large department stores are currently opening as of now.”

  “Alright, let’s hit up some now, can you drive me to the closest one?”

  “Confirmed.”

  I sat back as Raven drove. Just pulled out my e-reader and continued reading. For some reason I had a lot of young adult books. I wasn’t complaining, I said no horror, thriller, or mystery. That kept out a lot of mature audience books. So many young adult books were coming-of-age books however. They felt a little close to home for me.

  I felt like I was actually growing up now, taking on responsibilities I had never dreamed of. The guild, the community center, helping with the guard, selling to the DMC, setting up Oscar.

  Speaking of, I should call him.

  Pulling my phone out I stared at it. I had the credits, why hadn’t I upgraded it yet? Was it nostalgia? Was it because I wanted to be connected to everyone still? Was it because I was afraid of the system getting my info and contacts?

  ‘Status’ I thought to myself. It had been a few hours.

  Not a bad amount for roughly four hours. Maybe I’ll get some of those glasses like Jamie’s instead of a phone? Make that my phone instead? Be a little hard to text though. I can just get both. I’ll wait til we’re at the store though. Don’t want to distract Raven while she’s driving.

  We soon arrived. Another small hobby store. They weren’t open quite yet. But in about 20 min. Good enough.

  “Raven, remember the glasses we bought Jamie? I want some like that. Metal instead of plastic. Locked to me, and well, you. But also connected to my phone, which I’ll be upgrading after this. I want it to have eye movement perception, so I don’t have to wave my hands about though. But also hand wave, if I want to. Add in multi-screen projections if I want. Connect it to my current laptop and the hard drive I have, also my e-reader. Make them fit to my face as well. Easy on the eyes to look into. Um. Make it so I can dim the screens to see past them when I want? I can’t think of anything else.”

  “Would user like to connect to speaker as well?”

  “Yeah, that. That would be good too. Having my music library connected would be good. I need to upgrade that, thinking about it. Also have it where there is a visual keyboard as well as vocal text. I think that’s about it.”

  “Confirmed, total price 123500. Would you like to purchase?”

  “Yeah go ahead.”

  “Confirmed, placed in inventory.”

  “Alright now my phone. I want future tech in accordance with my laptop. Connected to my laptop, speaker, and e-reader, just like my glasses. I want all my current data on my phone transferred over, but I want it to run on a better battery or have a better battery life. I want to be able to use it in the dungeon and be nearly unbreakable. I want it to almost always have service, maybe not in the dungeon. If it could that’d be great. But not necessary. And I want it about the same size and shape it is now. Can you do that?”

  “Confirmed. Would user like to upgrade storage capacity?”

  “Oh hell yes. Make it a couple of terabytes? That can connect to any platform for phones?”

  “Confirmed. Purchase price 34000 credits.”

  “Pricey, but I’ll do it.”

  Suddenly my phone was replaced by a blue metal solid sheet. It was the exact proportions of my phone. I could see that both sides could be used. I could even unfold it for a bigger screen.

  “This is great Raven! Thank you for the unfolding part. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Positive confirmation. Gratitude is unnecessary.”

  “Well, they should be open by now, let’s see what they have in stock, shall we?”

  *

  It was a tailor’s dream store. Much like the previous store I went to before the dungeon, this one was all about sewing. There was so much fabric. I skipped over the machines and went to find a clerk. I pulled cart after cart to the measuring table as I went.

  “Hiya! Do you work on commission?”

  The little old man gave me a side eye when he saw me with all the carts. He partially shook his head.

  “Alright then, I’ll give you a $500 tip. Because I’m going to buy all the fabric in the store. Are you the only worker today?”

  He blinked at me. And went to the old school phone sitting on the table. He called for the manager and two other employees.

  I stood there calmly. Once they arrived the old man pointed at me and my claim. The manager snorted and asked how I was going to do that.

  “Because I doubt all the fabric in your store will cost more than the 100k I plan on spending. There’s a little rural town of crafts that are derelict of fabric. I’m to deliver as much as I can. So I’m buying you out of fabric. Get it? But! I’ll give each of you 500$ for the trouble. Because I know it’s a lot of work.”

  They all stared at me. One of the younger clerks said prove it. I pulled a wad of cash from my inventory and handed each of them five 100$ bills. She stared at them. Then started sorting the fabric. Measuring without cutting it. Just piling it up, then tagging the price. The old man stared at her, then me. Then got to work. The manager wanted to protest his store being bought out. But sighed and went to the back and started pulling out more fabrics and started measuring.

  The last clerk started carting things up to the front to ring up cart by cart. Which I thanked her for.

  Then paid cart by cart. And put everything into my inventory. Cart by cart. Pile by pile of fabric. They watched amazed as it disappeared. But continued. It took them several hours. I passed around my coffee bottle. And hit them with pristine a couple of times. I suggested breaks a few times.

  The manager asked if I wanted any machines and I said no, they were going faster by hand now. He looked like he didn’t believe me. I gestured toward my outfit and told him my level of tailoring. He gawked. Then sighed. Said he needed more back up orders then. To which I told him, I hadn’t seen any fabric in the system store yet.

  He blinked, then smiled at me. Thanking me for telling him.

  They continued. When they finished up, the total amount was nearly 85k in just fabric alone. I thanked them, and gave each of them another 500$. To which they gawked. I said I underestimated how much effort it had taken them. So they deserved it. Then I left.

  It was early afternoon now. I got back in Sky Trail and asked Raven about a different kind of hobby store. Maybe stationary or papermaking? Something a little more old fashioned. Raven took me to a close by stationary shop. I gave her a look, but went inside.

  I sighed and went inside. I was actually surprised to find office supplies. From pens and notebooks, to rulers and planners. All the office supplies one would need.

  I went to the clerk and asked her how much inventory she had. She replied with the size of her small store and what exactly she had. I said I want to buy it all. She laughed, thinking I was kidding. I told her I wasn’t.

  “Seriously. Small town, derelict of supplies. I’m the delivery boy for them. I’m just buying up as many supplies as they need. A stationary store has a whole lot more than I expected them to need.”

  She blinked at me, then started pulling things from the shelves. I stated I didn’t need bags, I had an inventory. I pulled out my leftover fanny packs, as she rang me up I started packing them in. They were about the size of a refrigerator, so there was plenty of space. I just had to manually organize them. Which took some doing. She just kept ringing me up. As I kept storing. She gave me a look. And asked me to pause and ring up what I had so far. I said sure. Then pulled out my black card. It rang up a few thousand. She was a bit startled. Then we continued.

  Since it was just the two of us, it took some time. I offered her some coffee as well, after I explained that it was roulette. Which I had forgotten to do at the fabric store. I did use pristine on it, also explaining what the wand was for.

  By the time we finished it was getting on to evening. There were still stores I wanted to hit up, but I had plenty of supplies now. I decided to call my parents and told them it would be another two days. I was still busy shopping for them.

  They were fine with that. No big hurry. Dad said he wanted better woodworking tools though. I told him I couldn’t get larger machines in my inventory though. He complained at that.

  So I went to a woodworking/carving shop. Ignoring all the show pieces I asked for a set of all the tools they had and any working wood they had. All of it. They complied. Apparently it wasn’t unusual for someone to come by and take all their wood at once. Weird. It didn’t take long with how many people were working there. I did have to have them cut down some of the actual freaking logs they had so I could store them. The rest stored just fine. I had spent over 150k just there alone!

  I was so glad I had sold wands to the DMC first now. I was getting broke just from supply run.

  *

  I went to other big box stores and bought out a bunch of crafting kits I could find. Even a lot of those little jewelry making kits. Then jewelry making stuff itself. Someone likely took the skill. They would be happy at least. Then I bought stuffing, the kind used for quilting at the box store. I almost forgot about it.

  There was a hobby/crafting store nearby that wasn’t closed yet, so I hit it up too. I just took a cart went up and down an aisle, filled it, checked out. Stashed it. Then repeated. They saw me come and go. I did this at least ten times before someone asked me what I was doing. So I explained. “Small rural town of crafters. Derelict of materials. I’m the delivery boy. Buying up supplies for them. Sorry, but I’m likely to empty you out. Or at least until you close.”

  A few people started helping me then. Just random customers. It was pretty funny, they would grab any and everything and cart it. I would buy it and inventory it. Which amazed them. I explained what the skill was and a few swore they wanted it now. Then we would repeat.

  One even got the fancy locked up paints and expensive colored pencils. Another all the canvases. One even got all the fake flowers. I decided why the hell not. And bought it all. The store looked barren by the time they closed. My new friends were having a riot. Most forgot why they had come. But I gave each a 50$ for having helped. That made them cheer even more.

  It was 11pm now. I was planning on hitting up some 24 hour stores now. But I got a call from Kate.

  “Hey boss-man, I heard you’re going out of town a few days? Want to come fill us up first? We’re getting low. As in, I haven’t been paid today or yesterday low. C’mon, I want money!”

  I laughed, “Yeah, sure. I’ll stop by the guild. Do you need any wands or armor?”

  “Meh, we can always do with more wands. You know that. But I think we might need more armor. Some of it was autosized to ‘small’ and can’t get autosized back up to ‘large’ if you know what I mean?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, have to be able to get it on. I’ll swing by in a few hours. I’m just running some shopping right now. My out of town is visiting my folks. They want supplies. For the town. Of crafters.”

  I heard Kate laugh. “The entire town? How big is the place?”

  I sighed. “Couple hundred I suppose? Well, it was last time I was there. Might be a few more or less now. I’ll see.”

  Kate laughed again. “That why you’ve been running around emptying stores? Boss-man you made the news!”

  I startled. “What? What do you mean?”

  “Oh, yeah. ‘Mysterious man empties store of fabrics. Gives each employee a thousand bucks! Shares coffee all around!’ Seriously boss-man! I want a mysterious bottle of coffee!”

  I chuckled. “It’s coffee roulette. You have store access, it’s like 30 credits? I think? Or 60? You can afford it, I think.”

  Kate huffed a sigh. “Fine, I’ll look into my own roulette bottle. Is there more than just coffee?”

  “Oh, yeah. I’ve got tea, milk, fruit juice, water with nutrients, there’s so many. I got the unlimited bottles, that’s why they’re roulette.”

  Kate laughed. “Unlimited roulette? Sounds like fun. Any terrible ones?”

  “Yes, black currant juice. It’s terrible. Also terrible as milk too.”

  Kate belly laughed, and snorted. I could tell. She was having a riot at my expense. “You’re kidding! Black currant? That sounds horrible! Who on earth drinks that?”

  “My guess? Somewhere in India. Isn’t that where they grow? Remember, the system is global. So you get things from around the world. I had a meal that was deep fried yak cheese. Like mozzarella sticks. Just yak cheese. Not as bad as it sounds. The smell though. Ugh.”

  Kate laughed again. “Whatever you say boss-man. Have fun with your shopping trip. I’ll see you in the morning or sometime! Later!”

  With that she hung up. It was nice talking with her. I forget how lively she is.

  “Attention. User can allocate funds from current location.”

  Wait, what? “You mean I don’t have to be at the guild to drop in credits?”

  “Confirmed.”

  “Ok, go ahead and drop in 50k credits. That should hold for awhile.”

  “Deposit confirmed.”

  “Ok, thanks Raven. Still need to drop off wands though.”

  I pulled out yet another fanny pack and put in a bunch of force and gravity wands. That should hold them over too. I set the bag on the floor of Sky Trail. As to not forget which bag it is. I’ve got a lot of fanny packs. And a lot of fabric. I sighed. Better get to work then.

  “Raven, take us back to the guild, please.”

  “Confirmed.”

  *