"Get your fresh meat here! Five coppers a piece!"
Right now, all I had to do was attract a single customer.
That's what I needed to do to complete the second ask of my quest. And if my conjecture was right, it would be enough to unlock the second perk of the system, market survey.
While less direct than five gold coins in my pouch, right now I needed all the help I could get.
And by all means, my strategy worked.
In a town of this level, meat was relatively more luxurious, harder to come by.
And at the prices I set it on?
It was a steal!
Coupled with the rich aroma of the slightly spiced-up skewered pieces spreading through the air, it only took me a few moments and a few advertising shouts to get my first customer.
"I will take two."
An old man, likely a worker in one of the town's factories, raised two fingers while tossing a big copper coin, an equivalent to ten standard coppers.
"Will do!"
I swung my arm with great enthusiasm, sliding a skewer through three pieces of meat in one thrust.
"One's on me," I smiled at the man as I raised a thickly-packed meat delight.
"Thanks," the old man smiled as he accepted the stick before happily biting into the food.
By pricing the meat THAT low, I pretty much sold it at a loss.
It wouldn't be possible for an amateur like me to quarter a pig, use most of its fat for oil, and then sell the leftover meat at such low prices.
The price of each piece barely managed to cover the cost of the pig they came from.
All because I never planned to make money on the meat!
I would sell at a huge loss, if it came to be.
Because after putting cheap meat into my customer's hands, especially when adding freebies, I was effectively buying their goodwill.
"Before you go, how about eating and then washing your hands?" I smiled and pointed at a pot with clear, slightly bubbly water.
My smile grew.
"It has a bit of perfumes in it."
If I had only the man's attention, then now I had his interest.
Instead of jumping on the opportunity, however, his face tensed up.
"Young man, if you are trying to…"
"It's free." I smiled away, still pointing at the pot with the most earnest look I could muster. "The first pot is to wash, the one next to it serves to merely wash away the soap."
Torn between suspicion and intrigue, the old man quickly finished his skewer up before approaching the immobilized cart.
He pulled out his hands and, after pausing for a second, dipped them into the water within the pot.
I've used my special recipe.
Three pieces of meat that I just glazed with the oil from a hidden cup.
And now, all of that excessive oil was stuck to the man's hand.
Yet, as if by a touch of a magic hand, as soon as he started to furiously rub away at his hands to remove the grime…
It came off.
Just like that.
The old man just stood there.
A few passersby threw their glance towards my stall.
The man then slowly brought his hands up before dipping them into a second pot, washing all of the foam off his hands. Then, as he brought them up…
"What?" His eyes, all startled, jumped from the two pots to my face. "How?" The man's eyes darted down to his hands, showing clear disbelief at what he just saw happen.
"Are you alright, sir?"
Someone approached, noticing the man's slow, deliberate movements.
Seeing all of it happen, I smiled and nodded my head.
"This water has a small bit of perfume diffused in it." Once again, I lied.
I didn't have any perfume.
Those were a domain I could not yet touch with my funds and means.
No. All I brought out was something much simpler.
"And I'm happy to sell you a bar of this soap, for half a silver a piece."
I brought out a slightly pink cube of hardened soap.
Thanks to my ability, it was perfectly cured, allowing for the herbal tones of its content to fully develop.
"You can use it to wash your hands and hair, and the grime should come off easily. I also have a heavy-duty one that will scrape away even the toughest stains!"
I pulled out another brick of soap, this time one from the batch that contained charcoal dust.
It was slightly darker in color, with some darker particles dotted all around its brick.
"Both go for half a silver a piece."
'For some reason, the sale of the skewer alone didn't trigger the system,' I noticed, instantly switching to a full salesman mode.
After all, even if this old man wouldn't invest in my soap, three couples locked their eyes on my stall.
Why couples?
I could only guess.
"Honey, can we?"
"Dear, do you want to check that out?"
As if synchronized, two of the couples spoke out and turned towards my stall.
The third couple said nothing as they already locked in, cutting through the crowd on their way to investigate.
"I will buy the clear one."
As if by a touch of a magic wand, my system reignited.
[First Sale - Find a paying customer willing to take the risk.]
[Market Survey (Insight Perk) - highlights potential unmet needs of a local economy]
The two lines of text on my quest flared up and then dimmed out.
At the same time, a new panel appeared before my eyes.
Thankfully, I was spared the lengthy learning session on how to control it. Instead, all of the necessary knowledge just crammed into my head, allowing me to wield my new ability at will.
I expected to see one, maybe two clues at what the local market needed.
Instead, my entire vision suddenly filled with graphs, layouts, data, and calculations.
[Processing]
My system flared up again. And under its guidance, I saw it.
A worryingly long list of needs that this city was lacking.
From proper sewage, through efficient street layout, all the way to all sorts of expensive tastes or technologies that clearly have yet to appear.
A list so massive, trying to process it all nearly knocked me out cold.
I shook my head, reeling from the massive hit to my psyche.
"Excuse me?"
I shook my head again.
"Ah, sure," I grabbed the bar of soap before handing it down to the old man. "Here, seeing how you are my first customer, consider this a gift."
I didn't need the old man's money.
I've already got my reward, so there was no need to continue on a not optimal path.
And right now, half a silver coin worth of soap was a cheap prize for the effect this gift had on the three couples that already had their eyes on me.
"Hello," the first of the said couples appeared, proving their dedication to check the novelty out. "We want the same as what that old man got," the man eagerly raised his hand with two fingers up while his partner hung to his arm.
"Skewers? How many pieces?" I grabbed another stick and looked up to smile at the new customers. "Or would you like to try my soap?"