“Ecclo!? Xila?! What are you two doing here?”

  “We could ask you the same. You should be farther into the continent by now, right?”

  “Some things went amiss. We were stuck on an island for a little over a month.”

  “You have the craziest adventures. To answer your questions though, my parents sent me off after my class evolution to set up more stores. Xila and I started dating after you left, so she decided to come with me.”

  “Wow! Congratulations to both of you. Please sit with us. This is Shell.”

  They all took their seats once more and Shell gave them a friendly smile.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you Shell. How did you two meet?” Xila extended her hand across the table.

  Shell took it and shook before responding. “On a pirate ship during a battle. He saved my life.”

  Both Xila and Ecclo’s eyes shot open in surprise.

  “Well, you’ve certainly had much more adventure than I have. I wanted to leave the library to experience the world and learn as much as I could.”

  Shell smiled. “That’s why I decided to travel with Synexus and the rest of the party as well. If you really want to learn a thing or two, then you should talk to Yu or Gene. They are brilliant.”

  “I’d love too! We’ve been talking to a lot of people on our journey so far, but it’s been mainly about bamboo.”

  “Bamboo? Oh, so that must make you the shopkeeper friend that Synexus has talked about.” She turned and spoke directly to Ecclo.

  “That I am. I’m glad I was worthy to be spoken about from the great Synexus.”

  Synexus rolled his eyes. “Why wouldn’t you be? You were my first friend in Gale.”

  “Did he ever talk about me?” Xila asked Shell.

  “I don’t have a perfect memory like him.”

  Xila laughed. “Wow, Synexus. You didn’t tell her about the amazing librarian that helped you?”

  “I’m sure I mentioned you, but I may have just said the librarian. To be fair, however, when speaking about Ecclo, I normally just call him my bamboo friend.”

  Ecclo shook his head before letting out a soft chuckle.

  “Still working on those people skills, I see. Speaking of bamboo though, your variants are doing great anywhere we go. This will be our third store. Did you by any chance make anymore?”

  “I haven’t, but I can. There have been a few different things that I want to try, not that I’ve improved my skills. Where is the new shop at?”

  “We are still looking for a space in the city. I’m not sure you’ve noticed, but most of the shops here are dealing with metal, ore, gemstones, and artisan crafting. Not many are looking for plants which is why my parents recommended it. If we could set up shop here, then we would own the market.”

  “Interesting. Why not sell metal plants then?”

  “Metal plants? Like plants that look metallic?”

  “No. I’ll show you later. I have some ideas. I also want to run something by you, but not here.”

  “I’m never going to understand you fully, am I?” Xila stared at Synexus with inquisitive eyes. She knew he was holding knowledge that she didn’t yet possess.

  “I spend every day with him, and I don’t fully understand him.”

  Xila and Ecclo turned to Shell and laughed.

  “I like her. Are you a bard by any chance?” Ecclo asked.

  “Something like that.”

  “Her music is beautiful. She plays that ocarina like you sell bamboo.”

  “Hmm, that would be something that I have to experience. When we get a storefront setup, would you mind playing at the opening. We’d pay of course.”

  “It’d be my pleasure. I will be playing here at the inn tonight if you’d like to watch me play before the opening.”

  “I’d love to see that! We have time, right Ecclo?”

  “We do! All I have to do is check out a spot for a storefront today. If you’d rather check out the local library or see the sights, then I’d understand.”

  “A day off. No bamboo talk for once. A girl’s day with Shell, perhaps?”

  “That sounds like fun. How about I take you upstairs to meet Yu. Maybe she’d like to join us…wait, can she walk freely in the city?”

  “I’m not sure. No one seemed to care last night. I bet she’d love to explore the city. Can you check on Kumo when you go up there?”

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  “Of course. I’ll see if she wants to come with us.”

  Xila and Shell got up and said their goodbyes. They planned to meet up back at the inn for Shell’s set later that evening.

  “Alright. Let’s find some place to talk privately, my friend.”

  Ecclo nodded and they left the inn in search of a place to discuss future plans.

  They walked through the city and in the daylight, it was even more a sight. All the metal gleamed in the sun. It was as if the entire city was sparkling and it reminded Synexus of his home planet. The city of Creation was similar except where they used silver, Goldhill used gold. Goldhill also lacked all the technology, but he was hoping to change that.

  Ecclo led them to an empty building on an empty street three blocks over from the fountain.

  “This is the best storefront I could find even with the wealth I’ve accrued.”

  “It’s much bigger than the one in Gale. What’s the problem with it?”

  Ecclo waved for him to follow and walked through the store to a fenced in outdoor space that sat behind the building.

  “This ground is much too hard for growing. The old herbalist had to set up garden boxes in this space with dirt imported from the forest. We could fill the space with dirt, but it’d be a lot of work. I’ve been looking for some employees here.”

  “There’s no need. You’ve already bought this place, right?”

  Ecclo nodded even though he technically only put down a deposit and Synexus walked to the middle of the space to place his hand on the ground. His sensors fed him information about the composition of the stone ground and with Element Database he analyzed the information. Using the radius of his Progress Garden skill, he was able to make modifications to the stone in half the space. With Element Modification he began to change the elemental composition changing the dry, hard dirt into fertile soil.

  Ecclo watched in disbelief. His eyes nearly popped from his head as the ground beneath him changed into useable soil. Moments later, dozens of different bamboo variants sprang from the ground. They were of course the best sellers from the original variants that Synexus had made for him. A minute later Synexus was done.

  “You really are incredible. What about that half?”

  “Oh, I have an idea. Watch this.”

  There wasn’t much to watch. It looked like Synexus was in deep meditation. Twenty minutes later, his eyes finally opened, and bamboo started to grow from the dry side of the space. A crumbling sound could be heard from the roots burrowing deep into the ground. Then Ecclo realized what he was doing.

  “You made bamboo that could grow in these conditions. Amazing! And the metallic sheen you put on these is incredible. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were metal.”

  “They are. Hardy bamboo that will be able to grow in most conditions. Each one is made of a different metal or a metal composition that is. I used a template from a tree that grew metal. Of course, that was living metal, and this is more like a plant that has the properties of the metals. It will be much weaker than the actual metal, but great for a place like this. Except for this one.”

  Ecclo looked down at a small sprout of shiny bamboo by Synexus’ feet.

  “What’s wrong with that one?”

  “Nothing. That one actually is living metal. It will take a long time to grow even with magical skills.”

  “Metal, that’s alive?”

  “It can be used to make living armor that will grow with the class chosen. Highly valuable.”

  “Man, your class is something else.”

  “Oh, by the way. Some people may come by asking about me and my class. Just tell them I’m a druid.”

  “My parents mentioned two people like that, but they haven’t been here yet. Don’t worry, I’d never give up a friend.”

  “Thank you. Although, if they threaten you or anything, give them what they want to know. Your life comes first.”

  Ecclo smiled and nodded. “So, is this what you wanted privacy for?”

  “No, there is actually something else. You’re my only merchant class friend and I wanted your opinion on something. It’s a big deal, can we sit?” He summoned two chairs from his Progress Garden and sat down.

  Ecclo followed his example and sat. “This sounds serious.”

  “It is. I do believe it’ll be quite lucrative for you and every other merchant as well”

  “Now I’m more interested.”

  Synexus laughed. “So, I can’t explain everything because trust me it’s knowledge you probably don’t want, but I have a chance to add a function to the System itself, and I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. My class is all about progress. It’s meant to blend nature and technology. It is a legacy that was passed down to me from a truly amazing person, and I intend to take it seriously.”

  Ecclo went to comment, but Synexus held up his hand to stop him.

  “Sorry, let me get this all of this and then I will answer questions.”

  Ecclo nodded in agreement and waved his hand for Synexus to continue.

  “Thank you. Now, I am considering the many functions I could add that would allow for a progress boom on Motholo. My mind wandered first to creating a shared database within the System where people could look up information that others had discovered. Shared knowledge would be powerful. I discarded this idea, however, because I fear it will inherently stop progress. People would rely on the information too much and never want to learn for themselves.”

  “Then, I thought about adding a chat function. Imagine being able to connect with and chat with any class chosen via a function in the System. This could help keep people motivated to venture out from their homes to have an adventure since they will be able to keep in contact with their loved ones. Well, the ones that are class chosen anyways. This was a good idea, but still, I feel like it wouldn’t be the progress boom that I want. Maybe I’m greedy, but I want this new feature to change everything.”

  “That’s when an idea struck me and I thought of you. The idea that I would go with, if I decide to take this chance, would be to create a feature in the System that allows for automatic and remote instant trade.”

  Ecclo’s eyes widened even more than before. His body tensed and he was on the edge of his seat about to fall off.

  “Imagine how much progress that would bring. Class chosen would have access to anything in the universe for the right price. New plants, new materials. Artisans could sell their wares to a bigger pool of clientele. Equipment that isn’t useful would no longer go to waste or be scrapped. It may be useless to people in this part of the world but may be the treasure of a lifetime on the other. Adventurers would no longer have to stop in every city while travelling the world. They could stock up whenever they need to and from wherever they are. It could save lives even and keep class chosen that would have died on their path progress. The positives are endless. What I need to know from you would be what the negatives are. As a merchant would this be something that would appeal to you? Would this make storefronts obsolete? Do restrictions need to be put on this ability? How about the banks? A universal money system would need to be made. Would the Progress Nexus be viable?”

  Ecclo couldn’t take it anymore and burst into a rapid-fire monologue about the idea. He listed all the ways that merchants would love a feature like it. Then he went into all the negatives that would need to be solved, or problems that would arise. Finally, he discussed the banks and the possibility of a universal economic system. How it would need to be regulated and how it could possibly destabilize the economic structure of Motholo. Synexus listened to every word and nodded along. This was why he told Ecclo. He knew the merchant genius would be exactly the person that could help him make such a function viable. At the end, his old friend looked at him in the eyes and said one last comment before the two went to explore the city with samples of their newest bamboo.

  “Synexus, this will change everything.”