"It'll really depend on if I can resell your merchandise there, but sure, I'll help you out." The shop's clerk said.
Steve felt relieved, because this necessarily meant that he could get rid of this loot easily, however, he could only hope that the other would cut him a fair deal, because if things got rugged he wouldn't be able to argue about it, because there was something really terrifying about a huge frog! The clerk was huge, and intimidating, especially since he had this big, puffy and green beard on him, there was no scaring him! The beard made him seem like a true barbarian too, and there was no haggling with a barbarian of any sort.
"Let me look at what you got there," The clerk said, and snatched the bag off of Steve's shoulder without much of a consent.
After that, it took a couple of minutes to take the jewelry out of the vase, but he did so without scratching anything. He barely counted the jewelry, and put them aside for a moment, because his eyes were glued to the diamond-encrusted vase, which wasn't surprising. This vase had three huge diamonds on its curved face, and tens of tiny diamonds were aligned throughout various parts of its body. The walls of it were made of solid gold, so in other words, this was a very expensive item, potentially rare too!
"You made my job a little bit easier, kid." He expressed, "This is a thorned, golden stump vase, hence, the diamonds being called thorns. I can definitely resell it, so I'm willing to offer you twenty-two small gold bars for it. How does that sound?"
"Small bars? How small are we talking about?" Steve asked, frantically, because he did not know the economical layout of this world. He didn't want to get scammed.
"The usual half-a-pound? I can't give you anything more than that, otherwise I won't be able to turn a profit. If you're looking for over twenty, one-pounders, then you have lost your mind!" He exclaimed.
"Twenty-two, half-pounders it is, then, I won't argue with you for more. What can you give me for those jewels and jewelry?" Steve then asked.
The clerk took a moment to analyze every item. He pulled out a parchment in order to remember every price regarding every single item, and came up with a proper, fair sum after about ten minutes. Considering all the work that he was putting in, regarding math, he didn't look like the scamming type!
"Okay, so I can give you eleven, small gold bars for all of these jewels and jewelry. They aren't worth much individually, but you sure do have a lot of them." He pitched.
"I was hoping to get more…" Steve sighed, in order to appear unwilling and displeased, but then he said. "But this'll have to do. So, you owe me thirty three small bars, then?"
"Yes," He answered, "But it can be a pain to carry, or possess all of them, I'm well aware. How about I give you two, ingot bars, and thirteen small bars? The ingots weigh four pounds each."
"It almost sounds like I'd be losing a couple of pounds worth of gold here?" Steve pointed out.
"In weight, yes, but not in value. An ingot will always be worth ten small bars, unless you're really bad at bargaining." He argued, though all-and-all he sounded really fair here.
After that point, they officially made a deal. The clerk slapped two ingots on the table, then he counted thirteen little ones, and Steve carefully slid all of them in his bag afterwards. It felt really accelerating to possess gold! He slid the bag in his green coat's inner pocket, and the weight of it made him feel pretty rich already, although he now walked a bit lop-sided too, because it wasn't easy to carry almost fifteen pounds of gold around!
"Gold must be really abundant here, if this bastard is handing it out so willingly…" He thought, "Let's hope I owe just ten tiny bars to those stinking bastards that stabbed me, because it doesn't seem as easy to get ten whole fucking ingots! I'd be dead within a week."
Anyway, Steve was getting ready to leave because he didn't feel particularly spendy at the time being, but then he got distracted by something. A woman walked in, but she was no ordinary woman, because she was as tall as the clerk in stature, but not as fat! She was coated with iron armor, and it didn't look like she came here to sell anything, no, though she did have a deal to offer.
Although she was huge, her voice was very punny, and she softly asked. "I'm looking for work. Do you need someone to guard your shop, dear clerk? I served several businessmen before, on the count of my expertise with battle axes, so no one will be stealing from you if you trust me to watch your shop. No one'll try at least."
"No… I'm pretty intimidating myself," The clerk said, "Besides, security guards cost a fortune these days, I would have to hand you every bit of profit I make, because one guard is never enough."
The woman accepted that answer as a 'no', she didn't bother the clerk anymore. She thanked him, and then started walking out.
Steve was impressed by her demeanor, so he called out for her. In this cruel, barbaric world, he started getting fond of the idea of having a bodyguard. A seven-foot tall one would especially come in handy!
"Hey, lady!" He called out, "If you won't rob me as soon as we get out of here, then I'd be glad to hire you. I never feel safe walking down those alleyways anyway, so I'd rather have someone else worry about muggers for me."
She turned around, and then directly answered. "I'm no mugger, dear sir. If you want to hire me, you have to pay me one-hundred gold coins now, and then you'll have to pay me again after a month."
"One-hundred coins? How much is that again, in terms of gold bars?" Steve asked, and although he appeared smug and or filthy rich, he was just confused instead.
"One, half-a-pounder, sir." She answered.
This was a deal that Steve could not refuse, as one bar simply seemed very cheap to him. This lady was already armed to the teeth, so he didn't have to buy her any armor either, she simply was battle ready! Steve could afford to hire her services, very much so, so he paid her almost immediately!
Afterwards, he bought a dagger from the merchant, which only cost ten-gold coins, so he got a lot of change after he bought the dagger, ninety coins to be exact. Thankfully the merchant gave him a little bag as well, so he could separate the coins from his bars, however, he didn't have to worry much about the counting. This lady that he hired, whose name was Altima, did the counting for him, she was very accommodating!
The two of them left the shop moments after, and as they did, Steve expressed. "You'll be doing all the fighting for me, but it doesn't hurt to have a hard, steel dagger, right? My flaming fingers are no different from a fucking heating pad."