Alari practically skipped down the narrow trail towards the nearby village. His mood soured as he considered his next steps. While Identify was incredibly useful, it didn’t solve his immediate needs: acquiring supplies and funds.

  He neared the village well into the day, having made better time than he expected. He had stopped casting spells for the past few hours, so his mana had recovered somewhat, but was still only slightly above half full. He stopped, deciding what to do before entering.

  The obvious solution to his woes was to create value from something mundane, like turning a rock into solid gold. While that was theoretically possible, the general sense he had of the spell was that it would be costly, so he doubted he could afford to be inefficient in its usage. Since the spell's cost was proportional to the mass affected, he could instead only target a thin area around the surface of the rock. He had no qualms about pulling one over on this particular merchant, given how he had taken advantage of his family. Unfortunately, that was one of the oldest known cons, and Alari doubted it would fool even a novice peddler.

  Another more efficient option was precious stones, since they shared numerous properties with common rock. While it seemed like a step in the right direction and would be viable with a bit more mana, it wouldn’t bring in as much as he needed. Most raw stones wouldn’t carry the ridiculous value that consumers on Earth expected, much of it coming from jewelers and gem cutters. It was also likely a niche market, available only to those with connections to high-end clientele, something a village peddler would not have.

  What he needed was something valuable, yet similar to something he already had. He didn’t have much, but there was one thing he didn’t need: the burlap used to wrap the food he’d been given.

  Alari emptied the bag and greedily devoured the dense bread and fruit. He spread the cloth on the ground and examined it. The fabric was coarse and relatively heavy, whereas a similar square of linen would weigh a fraction as much and be worth significantly more. It was also a more suitable material for this market.

  While Alari wasn’t sure about his choice, it felt reasonable enough to try. However, instead of doing the whole square at once, he started with just a corner. Pouring in just a trickle of mana, the spell took effect; the corner smoothed out its texture and became noticeably lighter. It was strange seeing the two materials seamlessly connected. Being able to merge and weave materials like that was powerful: he could create entirely new structures.

  Alari returned his attention to the mostly burlap square. With the low cost of the portion he had transmuted, he was confident he had enough mana to convert the remaining burlap. He defined the spell form and began pouring mana into it. There was a noticeable delay, as the spell required several percent of his total mana Capacity, and his Throughput was only able to provide a single percent of his mana per second. However, once the spell was fully charged, there was no perceivable lag; one moment the cloth was burlap, the next it was linen.

  Pleased with the result and the efficiency, he considered the implications: the fibers in linen and burlap were chemically similar but vastly different in weave structure. In a way, that made sense. It was easier for the spell to simulate effects that could be achieved on Earth through chemical processes, but fundamentally changing matter from one element to another was inefficient. If he could get the base components for more advanced alloys, that would be an efficient way to use his spell.

  The village was too small to warrant any town guard or defensive fortifications. The few businesses catered to travelers bound for Lanika or to farmers who eked out an existence nearby. The former was far more profitable, but even that wasn’t a sure thing. The most common were soldiers stationed at the border to the wastes, and adventurers delving further lightward.

  The general store remained as he had remembered it: a single-story building, slightly better maintained than the rest, with bright blue wood accents that stood in stark contrast to the other buildings’ typical drab colors, with an image of a pack hanging near the door. A bell rang as Alari opened the door. A bored-looking man with a balding hairline glared at him from behind a counter.

  “What do you want, boy?” the man practically spat.

  “I have awakened a Class, so I’m no boy. As for my business, I’m here to sell and maybe buy some supplies for a journey to Lanika,” Alari said, doing his best to remain professional, even if this man didn’t.

  “A malnourished runt like you; I doubt you have anything worth my time,” he sneered.

  Alari wanted to lash out, but knew that would get him nowhere. Instead, he held out the linen square for his inspection.

  “Where did you get this? Did you awaken a Bandit Class or something?” the merchant asked accusingly.

  “Does it look like I can intimidate or fight soldiers and adventurers?” Alari asked.

  “You got a point there, but you still haven’t answered my question,” he countered.

  “Why do you care?”

  “Whoever will buy this will want to know,” the merchant said with a shrug. It was a fair point, but Alari had no intention of telling him.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Alari rolled up the cloth and turned to leave. The merchant sighed and called out, “Two silvers.”

  “That much material of that quality is worth at least three,” Alari countered, having no idea if that was true, but he assumed the merchant hadn’t started with his best offer.

  “Maybe, if there was more of it. As it is, a tailor could only make a small item from this. If you would tell me your source, then maybe…”

  “One silver and eight coppers, and a burlap sack with enough jerky and bread for two days.”

  They eventually settled on one silver five coppers, in addition to the items he had requested. The sack was similar to what he had made the linen from, so the rest was pure profit. In theory, he could live off his transmute spell, making transactions like this every couple of days. However, he had far more ambitious goals than simply surviving.

  “You said you were headed to Lanika by yourself? Or are you staying in town for a while?” the merchant asked as he put the cloth away.

  “I’ll be headed out first thing tomorrow,” Alari explained.

  The funds quickly dwindled as he purchased a room in the only inn. It had cost him his silver, but it included breakfast and dinner. The room was slightly larger than a closet, fitting little more than a bed. It was lumpy with discolored sheets that smelled of body odor, but it was still better than living on the farm. He passed out shortly after his head hit the pillow.

  Alari awoke the next day, his sense of time telling him it was well past when he usually woke. Thanks to the extended sleep and his improved mana regeneration Attribute, his mana was almost completely refilled. While he wanted to reach Lanika in a reasonable number of days, he wasn’t really in a hurry, so he took his time waking up. It felt uncomfortable, his mind having adjusted to the routine of living on a farm, even if he hadn’t entirely accepted it.

  Taking out his five remaining copper coins, he inspected them. No two coins were identical, and a couple lacked any minting and were simply flat disks of metal. The remainder had simple insignias that would have been easy to replicate. While there likely wasn’t too much scrutiny for coppers, he suspected he had been given the least valuable of the coins. Fortunately, he noticed a copper coin with identical minting to the silver he had just spent. Given the metal's inherent value, he doubted anyone would turn down a coin. However, there was likely an unspoken markup for unminted coins of the same weight, given the risk of dilution from precious metals.

  Deciding not to take a risk, he picked up an unmarked copper. Focusing on his spell construct, he channeled mana. It took far longer for the spell to activate. The copper coin became noticeably heavier, but given that gold was more than twice as dense, he should have expected this. The coin was also shiny, his spell having converted the impurities and grime into metal, likely with a steep conversion cost.

  Unsure of what was an acceptable size for a gold coin, Alari placed it to the side and took the coin with the minting he recognized from the silver he had spent. This time, before transmuting the metal, he made sure to wipe off some of the grime with his shirt sleeve. When that was done, he once again channeled mana into the Transmute spell. However, instead of turning it into gold, he set the spell to silver. When the spell finished, it had once again taken a significant amount of mana, though substantially less than it had with the gold. Despite the reduced cost, it was likely less efficient than gold from the perspective of mana per unit of wealth, since each type of coin was ten times more valuable than one of the same size but a level down.

  While gold might have been more effective, someone looking like he did, carrying that amount of wealth, was bound to attract unwanted attention. For that reason, he converted a couple more of his coins into silver.

  Content with his wealth for the time being, he made his way down to the common room. He expected it to be empty, since no one had been there last night, so he was surprised to find a group of armed men and women. There were five of them, and he guessed they were adventurers, based on the range of their arms and armor: on one end was a short woman who wore dark clothing with shortswords at her hip, while on the opposite end of the spectrum was a mountain of a man with plate covering the majority of his body with a greatsword leaning against the wall.

  Most of the adventurers didn’t seem to notice or care about him, with a couple of them looking like they were nursing a hangover. However, one of them, a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair, studied him intently. For a brief moment, a look of shock crossed the grizzled man’s face, but it disappeared a moment later.

  A bit unnerved, Alari didn’t waste time, quickly eating eggs, bread, and cheese. Before leaving, he made sure to use a silver coin, asking for nine coppers back so he could leave a one-copper tip. Of course, he wasn’t being entirely altruistic, since he did this so he would have more coins to transmute throughout the day as he hiked to the next village.

  He left the small village, now on a real road rather than a simple trail. Lost in thought as he traveled, he didn’t notice a pair of men standing on the road until he was practically on top of them. They were bigger than him, with threadbare clothing and sunken eyes that studied him intently. It took his stunned mind another moment to realize they each had a dirk drawn. Alari felt a surge of panic, but tried to remain calm; they might have a valid reason for waiting on the road. That faint hope faded when they blocked him from passing, brandishing the naked steel at him.

  “Don’t play dumb with us, we know you have coin,” the bigger of the two said unprompted.

  At his declaration, there was a rustling behind Alari, and a third man stepped out from behind a bush. With no other option, Alari set his pack down, fully intending on giving up his possessions. While it would be annoying to replace the few items he had accumulated, it was far preferable to being killed.

  Despite getting what they wanted, they still held their weapons at the ready, with a predatory gaze. A surge of adrenaline coursed through Alari’s body as he realized they had no intention of letting him leave. He couldn’t fight three men and survive, and he was surrounded, so running was out. His only way out was to reason with them.

  “Listen, I can make you all very wealthy…” Alari started to say, but his words abruptly cut off as he felt a sharp pain in his back.

  Looking down, he saw the point of a sword sticking through his abdomen. A moment later, there was a wave of agony as the man behind him kicked him forward, wrenching the blade free. The force sent him tumbling to the ground. A pool of crimson rapidly formed around him, and his consciousness faded.