A part of Vasilisa felt like a mad scientist, but another part of him felt like this was the sort of thing he should take advantage as soon as possible. Travelling in real life was painfully expensive, and he was pretty certain that travelling in fake life was going to be pricey too, nevermind the fact that it’d also be dangerous as hell going off into the unknown. But Vasilisa came to Thalam for the express purpose of doing things she couldn’t do in real life.

So there he was, skulking in a dark alleyway, his broad shoulders and barrel chest at odds with how narrow his illicit rendezvous point was. The cleric had no idea whether or not Mimika was as painful to interact with in game as they were in chat, but then again, if impressions were bad, he could part ways with them real easily. With that in mind, he sat on a barrel, humming a song to himself.

Soon enough, the aforementioned Mimika appeared at the alley’s entrance - the sunlight behind her cast a menacing shadow deep into the space between buildings. However, once she stepped into the backstreet and made her way closer to Vasilisa, her true form was revealed: a cute, petite elven cleric. Mimika waltzed down the alleyway with a smirk on her face, growing even more smug as she paused and looked Vasilisa up and down. 

[color=lightcoral][b]“Sooo I’ll have you know my E-RP rates are kind of high. Game’s still new, can you pay? I also accept gift cards - in real life, of course,”[/b][/color] she said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. The other cleric’s vague message in the game’s chat log didn’t really give her any idea as to what he wanted, so she could only assume.

[b]“Huh?”[/b] Vasilisa made a face. [b]“Aren’t you here for business? Like, playing the market and all. Whatever you people do to make money.”[/b]

Mimika looked at the beefcake with a deadpan stare. [color=lightcoral][b]“Uh, [i]yeah[/i]. I am trying to make money. That’s why I’m charging you.”[/b][/color]

Vasilisa blinked. Maybe econ majors just couldn’t read subtext. That’s the price you paid, huh. Without another word, he reached into his Inventory and drew out the Nativity Tunic, handing it over to the midget cleric. [b]“Blue Slimes drop these. Easily as well. You’ve been to the shops yet?”[/b]

She took the tunic in her hands, scrutinizing it. It looks similar to the tunic that the blue slimes dropped, true… but it was cleaner. Wait, didn’t they drop ‘slime-covered tunics’? This was anything but slime-covered. 

[color=lightcoral][b]“Did you… like, wash this off....?”[/b][/color] she murmured, turning the tunic over in her hands. She didn’t have one of the slime tunics herself, but her party leader had gotten one pretty early on. It really seemed to be the same thing, just with a different name. If that was true… 

[color=lightcoral][b]“I haven’t been inside them yet,”[/b][/color] Mimika said, handing the tunic back to Vasilisa. [color=lightcoral][b]“Are you telling me you can turn the slime-covered tunics into a better item? You wanna resell them for profit or something? ‘Cause that’s… actually a pretty good idea, I think.”[/b][/color]

[b]“Same thing with the sword.”[/b] Vasilisa pulled that one out too, rotating it. [b]“Doesn’t take too long at all to clean off the slime. Could do it faster with soap, probably. And I [i]have[/i] checked the shops. Nothing else this early on comes close to matching these in stats or effects. Before anyone else realizes the value of the slime-covered items, we should take advantage of it.”[/b]

A pause.

[b]“I need lotsa money if I wanna go far. Can you make early money into bigger money like those investors do in Wolf of Wall Street?”[/b]

[i]This dude’s plan is sound,[/i] Marcus thought to himself. Mimika touched a hand to her chin as if thinking it over. She could take this info and run, but then her reputation would drop hard. Better to go into business with him. His reference was a little dated, but she got what he meant.

[color=lightcoral][b]“I think I can do that,”[/b][/color] she said, smiling. [color=lightcoral][b]“We need to get a bunch of slimey items, clean them and resell them, ya? Shouldn’t be that hard. I can sell things with this pretty face of mine~[/b][/color]” the cleric chuckled to herself before continuing.  [color=lightcoral][b]“Uh, we would be selling to the other players, right? That would make us more money than selling to shops. I can already see a problem though…”[/b][/color]

Mimika didn’t have pockets because she had a neat UI inventory, but she made a gesture as if pulling a pants pocket inside out. 

[color=lightcoral][b]“I don’t have any money. Neither does my party. We can sell them to the people that have cleared the tutorial quest already, but that’s like… I dunno, 20 copper?”[/b][/color] She didn’t bother checking the quest info.[color=lightcoral][b] “Although if we take everyone in the server for their quest reward money, we’d probably already be the richest people in the game.”[/b][/color]

Vasilisa shrugged. [b]“What if we offered enhancement services instead? They provide money and the equipment, we provide the miracle method.”[/b] A pause, and his eyes slide towards the market. [b]“Maybe hire an NPC to serve as the front?”[/b] More pondering, more contemplation. [b]“Or just sell this information to a shopkeep, and get a cut of the profits.”[/b]

[color=lightcoral][b]“No, no giving info away - “[/b][/color] Mimika spoke up quickly. Her ditzy personality was melting away as the conversation went on.[color=lightcoral][b] “Besides, who knows if an NPC shopkeeper could even do something like that? An NPC frontman might be good though. He takes the items and cash and passes them off to us. We could probably get away with only paying the NPC pennies too. Min-wage. Yeah… this could work.”[/b][/color]

She grinned at the other cleric.[color=lightcoral][b] “The two of us together and I think we can make this happen!”[/b][/color]

[b]“Alright.”[/b] Vasilisa nodded, before storing his equipment back into his Inventory. [b]“I’ll do some price-checking on resell value; you can find someone to serve as the frontman. Keep in touch, Mimika.” [/b]He extended a hand for a shake. [b]“If all goes well, we’ll be the richest players on the server...for all of one day, maybe.”[/b]

Mimika grinned and took the other cleric’s hand, giving it a firm shake. Wow, day one and she’d already found a get rich quick scheme. 

[color=lightcoral][b]“Can do!”[/b][/color]