CHAPTER 183: SETTING UP THE SHOP

"Coming!" Zoran’s voice came from within the shop. He walked out from one of the doors at the back a few seconds later and met them.

He looked like he was working on something at the back and was wiping his hands on his clothes when he came out.

While Zoran received the meal that his wife had brought for him, Alex and his sister wandered around the shop.

Alicia just stood there, lost; she didn’t know what she should be doing.

Alex walked around and observed the shop; the space where the shelves were located was wide and spacious, and one could see most areas from the position where the counter was located.

The shop had four doors at the back, two led to storage rooms, one led to a restroom, while the last one led to a small room with a small window.

One could use this small room as a sleeping room if they wanted.

After walking around the place for a bit, Alex was satisfied with the condition of the place. As someone who did part-time jobs in stores in his previous life, this shop was top tier in his opinion, and the location was very good as well.

He returned to the front of the shop, where the counter was located, after he was done with his inspection. His father was currently eating his breakfast while his mother had taken the two girls to look around the shop.

"What do you think?" Zoran asked after swallowing what he was chewing.

"It’s very good!" Alex replied with a big grin.

Zoran smiled in response and resumed eating. Not long after, a van drove over and stopped in front of the shop.

"The items are here, let’s go," Zoran called out. He stopped eating and walked toward the door, Alex followed behind him.

His mother appeared with Alicia and Emily not long after, and they went to join the two outside.

The four of them waited beside the van while Zoran had a word with the driver, they talked for a few seconds before Zoran returned.

"Alright, let’s take them in." He stated.

At the same time, the back of the van opened by itself and everyone could see what was inside.

There were several boxes of different sizes arranged inside the back of the van, the biggest one was as tall as 4ft while the smallest one was half a meter tall.

They began taking the boxes out of the van one after the other. There were over fifty boxes, and it took them quite some time to take everything out. The van drove off and it was now time to bring everything into the shop.

Some of the boxes were quite heavy but it wasn’t a problem with Alex and Alicia around. Alex blamed it on him being a mage, he had more strength than normal people.

As for Alicia, the windrend didn’t make it look obvious so she had Emily carry a box with her. Of course, she was the only one carrying it, and Emily was just there to make it look like they were sharing the work.

Some time passed before the last box was brought into the shop. Zoran said that everyone must be exhausted and suggested that they take a short rest before starting to allocate the items to the shelves.

Although Alex and Alicia weren’t tired, they didn’t say anything and sat down as well. Zoran went out for a while and soon returned with some chilled fruit drinks for everyone, it was a reward for their hard work.

He had bought enough for everyone to have three each. Emily actually took two, saying that she worked the hardest and was more tired.

They laughed at this and agreed to her demands, she was too cute to be rejected.

After resting for some minutes, they resumed work and began to distribute the items in the box to the shelves.

The items included mana cores, magic items, and parts of magic beasts like teeth and claws.

The highest grade of items in the boxes was grade 2 magic items. Zoran pointed at the shelves where each item should be placed to avoid them getting mixed up and disorganised.

After all of the shelves were filled up, the rest of the boxes were taken to the storage rooms at the back of the shop.

When everything was done, all of them gathered in front of the counter and took a look at the shop that was now filled with magic items.

On some shelves, one could see shiny mana cores, some shelves held beast parts, and others had magic items placed on them.

The shop was now in order and ready for business! All of them stared silently with emotions in their hearts, their life situation was going to undergo a big change from now on.

They now had a shop!

All of them were feeling emotional, except Alicia; the windrend had no idea why she was standing there with them but just kept standing there regardless.

By the time they were done with everything, it was already afternoon. Luckily, their mother had packed lunch earlier while they were coming to the shop. She brought out the food and everyone gathered to eat.

Eating didn’t take long and they were done in less than twenty minutes. After everyone finished eating, Zoran brought out a list for everyone to look at.

It was the list of items and acceptable price range given by the Union, which was to create a fixed price range for items across all shops to avoid imbalance in the market.

Zoran wanted everyone to slowly get familiar with the various prices of items.

Taking a look at the list, Alex and the others realised one thing.

The most expensive and also the cheapest items on the list were the magic beasts’ parts. The price range for some beast parts hovered around 5k Zen to 10k Zen while some could go as high as 700k Zen!

This was determined by the size of the part, the beast it belonged to, and the strength of the beast.

Magic items had a fixed negotiable price range of 30k to 60k Zen for grade one magic items; any amount within this range was acceptable, but it could not go lower than 30k or higher than 60k.

Grade two magic items also had a fixed negotiable price range as well, the amount the item was sold for was up to the shop owner and the customer, but it mustn’t be lower or higher than the stated prices listed by the Union.

Alex took a look at the price range for mana cores and couldn’t help but be surprised.

The negotiable price range for grade one mana cores was between 40k Zen to 50k Zen. This was more than how much the Union bought mana cores from him!

’Well, they still have to make their own profit.’ Alex thought to himself, he knew for sure that he was earning more from the mana cores he sold to the Union than what other explorers earned so he didn’t have any complaints.

While they were still looking at the list, the glass door of the shop slid open and a middle-aged man in expensive clothes walked in.

Everyone immediately looked up, their first customer!