Chapter 15: Right of Passage

  Over the next few days, Lan Chi focused entirely on gathering intelligence. Besides purchasing various information, he had the hut nurture four more scorpion-tailed bees. Together with the original one, he now had five, which he sent out to scout the surrounding area.

  "You five don't need to come back every day. If you gather information, just stay in the nearby trees and report back through thought," Lan Chi instructed. He had come to appreciate how convenient telepathic communication was.

  "If you encounter people of different races, don't get close. Just watch from afar. Do not interact with them. If you discover any settlements or similar places nearby, come back and report. Also, if you come across a battlefield, remember the location. If it's very close to us, hurry back and report immediately."

  After giving his instructions, Lan Chi had the hut open a window and released the scorpion-tailed bees.

  Lan Chi continued organizing his intelligence. He had already spent nearly all of his ten thousand Phosphorus Crystals. However, the information he had obtained was quite substantial. He had the hut produce a paper-like resin fiber and recorded the intelligence from the past few days on it.

  "Little Hut, here's the remaining thousand Phosphorus Crystals. Eat them and generate six thousand meat portions for me," Lan Chi said. He had noticed that meat prices were slowly beginning to decline, though they occasionally spiked.

  Based on the intelligence he had gathered over the past few days, he wasn't entirely sure about the current situation outside. It seemed that most factions were actively building up their bases or hunting natives to claim territory. Full-scale conflicts probably wouldn't break out anytime soon.

  "Oh, okay."

  Six thousand meat portions were quickly generated. Lan Chi anonymously listed them in batches. The market became lively once again. All the trial participants were curious about which faction was producing this meat, and they kept probing each other for information.

  Watching their animated discussions, Lan Chi frowned and muttered to himself, "Looks like I can't keep selling meat regularly. I need to find new trade goods."

  Lan Chi opened his private messages, deleted all the inquiries about information, and scanned for the message he had been waiting for.

  Soon, he found it. A reply from a gnome merchant named Gil Hammerforge: "I've secured a blank pass. Just put a drop of blood on it and fill in your name to bind it. Price is ten thousand Phosphorus Crystals."

  Lan Chi's brow furrowed tightly. The other party was really asking for an arm and a leg. Lan Chi replied, "Two thousand at most. No one can come up with ten thousand right now."

  The other party responded immediately: "No way, that's too much of a loss for me. At least eight thousand five hundred. Do you have any idea how much effort it took me to get this? This is a pass issued by the Merchant Confederation!"

  Lan Chi curled his lip. "I don't have that much money. There aren't many people who have that kind of spare cash to buy a pass right now. The most I can give you is two thousand twenty Phosphorus Crystals."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The gnome replied: "That's too little! Seven thousand. At least seven thousand."

  Lan Chi: "Two thousand one hundred at most. Take it or leave it. I'll find someone else."

  The gnome hesitated for a few minutes. Seeing that the potential buyer really seemed to be ignoring him, he started to panic. He had purchased the pass from a higher-tier merchant for one thousand Phosphorus Crystals. If he couldn't sell it, he would actually lose money. "Fine, two thousand one hundred it is."

  The transaction was quickly completed. Lan Chi received the pass, signed his name on it, and added a drop of blood. The pass immediately began to change, and the system screen displayed a notification:

  [Trial Participant: Abomination / Merchant]

  Lan Chi stared at the updated information on the pass. He found the "Abomination" identity quite troubling. The cloaked figure from that night had uttered something about "Abominations," and judging by his tone, it was definitely not a good thing. It seemed this was an identity that various factions despised. He wondered if the newly acquired "Merchant" designation could help conceal it to some extent.

  "Lan Chi, what are you thinking about?" The hut noticed him staring blankly and asked curiously.

  "I'm thinking about how to modify the shelter. Now that we have the merchant identity, our next step is to leave this area. It's too dangerous here—it could become a battlefield at any moment." Lan Chi explained his plan. He picked up a charred wooden stick and began sketching on a piece of coarse paper, quickly drawing a simple wagon. "Look at this shape. Can you transform into something like this?"

  The hut glanced at the picture. "I can change into that."

  "Good." Lan Chi nodded, took out the Phosphorus Crystals he had just traded for and set aside a thousand. "Eat these first. Then, open up a few more spaces. Move the bedroom and living room into the folding spaces. We need to appear as a wagon on the outside."

  After giving these instructions, Lan Chi continued searching for information. What troubled him now was finding an animal to pull the wagon. He had no idea what draft animals in this world looked like. The system's trading market didn't seem to allow live animal transactions either. It looked like he would have to buy a piece of meat and have the hut read its genetic information to replicate one.

  He opened his chat with the orc A Dai and sent a message: "Brother, do you have any draft animals for sale over there?"

  A Dai seemed busy with something and only replied after more than ten minutes: "I do, but how would you come to buy them? The grasslands are very far from your location."

  Lan Chi asked: "Can we trade through the light screen?"

  "No can do," A Dai replied. "Although the gods granted us these convenient trading tools, live creatures can't be traded through them."

  "Then can I see what kind of draft animals you have there? Can you send an image?" Lan Chi asked tentatively. His makeshift system screen lacked many functions.

  "An image? No can do. I don't know how to draw. Why don't you check the intelligence from 'The Watchtower'? Their information is the most comprehensive. You can ask them if they sell any," A Dai replied.

  Lan Chi felt secretly pleased—he had asked the right person. He immediately thanked him: "Alright, thanks brother."

  Lan Chi switched back to the trading channel and searched for posts from "The Watchtower." He quickly found their intelligence listings. It turned out that many of the information books he had purchased before came from this organization.

  He found their contact information and sent an anonymous message: "Hello, I'd like to purchase information about animals."

  The reply came quickly: "What type do you need? Ordinary animals, magical creatures, or magical beasts?"

  Lan Chi thought for a moment and asked: "I'll take all three."

  "5500 Phosphorus Crystals." The other party immediately sent the price.

  Ouch, so expensive! Lan Chi looked at the price. Although he could afford it, he didn't want to attract too much attention. He asked: "Can you lower the price a bit?"

  "No can do," the other party replied. After a moment, they sent another message: "The book on ordinary animals is 500 Phosphorus Crystals. The magical creatures and magical beasts are 2500 each."

  Lan Chi considered for a moment and replied: "Then I'll buy the magical beasts book."

  The transaction was quickly completed. Lan Chi got the book and immediately handed it to the hut, instructing it to decipher it as soon as possible.