"You've mentioned 'The Climb' and 'Climbers' a few times. What is that?"

Marcus's face lit up into an excited smile as he explained The Climb as enthusiastically as any football fan would describe the sport. He talked favorite players and teams, scandals, and upcoming bouts. Cass couldn't believe it. Here they were, scrabbling for their lives every day, and these people over here were watching sports and going to work? The ridiculousness of them staying on their own sunk a little deeper into him.

Why won't they come and try to make it here? A place like this is going to be better than whatever dirt-ringed castle they try to come up with. There are people here - people who aren't scared every day of their lives. People who aren't at risk of dying every single day. We could just live here. Why won't they LISTEN to me?

"Hey. Hey buddy."

Cass focused his eyes and saw Marcus waving a hand in front of his face.

"Hey buddy, lost you there for a sec. So, whatcha want to do? It's been a fun conversation and all, but I have other clients to attend to." He and Cass both looked at the empty street behind him. Marcus had the good graces to look sheepish.

"I'm not selling my own energy, that's for sure," Cass said. "But I may have stuff to sell."

Marcus shrugged. "Sure, no worries. First thing we have to do is set you up an account with a Trader. They'll get your stuff on the Market. Although, before you bring anything to them you should let me look at it. There are other markets that might pay more."

Cass didn't miss the avarice in his eyes. "We'll see. Let's go to the Market first."

Marcus sighed, shrugged, and waved Cass to follow.

The walk was short. At the very next intersection was a massive tent, the white ones that held huge parties and weddings before The System. They stepped through the flaps and into a warm interior filled to the brim with voices. Long tables were placed in rows with an attendant at each. Some had lines of people queued up while others sat empty, their attendants looking bored.

"This is one of the seller markets - the closest, but not the biggest. If you have really good, high level, or unique stuff you can go to one of the better markets. They'll get you better exchange rates and have your stuff listed on more selective auctions, but for your general everyday stuff this is your place. Over there are weapons tables, defensive measures over there, clothing there, household items there, etc. You just find the tables you want. If you're not sure where to go, or you have too big of a mix of things, you can go to one of the general brokers in the back. They'll charge an extra fee for having to sort your goods but it can save you a lot of time."

Marcus walked him to one of the back tables and introduced him to the young woman sitting behind it, feet kicked up on the table. "Hey Ginny, this is my new friend Cass. Cass, this is Ginny. She can not only get you set up, she also deals in unique items. You can also choose to make her an exclusive broker for you, which has its own set of benefits."

"Nice to meet you Ginny," Cass stuck out his hand. Ginny reached up and shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Cass. I can get you set up, but first I have to ask," she ticked items off on her fingers. "Do you have an established contract in place with any other broker? Do you have any exclusivity contracts that would impact your ability to conduct business through me? And have you fully paid your Concierge for his services?"

Cass's head reeled at the onslaught of questions. "Uhm… no, you're the first broker I've met. No, I haven't made any contracts with anyone. And no, I guess I forgot about that part."

Marcus bowed dramatically. "Why thank you, Ginny, you are a gentleman and a scholar."

"So, as I said, 80% of your goals within 48 hours."

Ginny whistled. "Damn Marcus, you promised that? That's a tough ask. You sure you can do that?"

"What's she talking about?" Cass asked Marcus.

Marcus waved her off. "Bah, she's being Ginny. It'll be fine."

"Listen, kid," Ginny pulled her feet off the table and leaned forward onto it to give Cass a serious look. "He's actually making a pretty big promise here. Do you think it's easy to give someone 50% of what they need, much less 80%? Especially someone who is desperate enough to pop in from out of the city for it? I don't know how far you came, but if you're here it means you need something - bad. If he's willing to help you get it fulfilled at that level he's really putting his ass on the line. Do you know what happens to Concierges that don't fulfill their agreements?"

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"They don't get paid?" Cass asked.

"Well, that's true," Marcus said, "but it's not all. We lose experience points."

"You WHAT? How is that even possible?"

Marcus shrugged. "I guess it's The System's way of keeping us from constantly over-promising and under-delivering. If we could promise our clients the moon every time and didn't have any consequences to not delivering it then the faith in the entire class would crash. We have to do what we say we'll do or we get punished for it."

"Wow, I guess that makes sense," Cass said.

"You want to know what a good fulfillment percentage is for one of the big guys?" Ginny asked. "50%. They'll never go above 50%, which means you pay to get all of your needs met and they are only incentivized to get you 50% of what you want. Anything above that is just extra work for them."

"You see," Marcus picked up where Ginny left off. "I don't base my fulfillment rates on effort-vs-returns or how much risk there is in it. I give you an honest assessment of what I can do for you, and the number is how much I know for certain that I can accomplish for you."

"You really should reduce that number, Marc," Ginny said.

Marcus shook his head emphatically. "Come on Ginny, you know I won't. I saw what he wants and I can give him 80% of it guaranteed - maybe even 100%. I'm not going to shortchange him just because it gives me an advantage. Which, by the way, I expect you to honor too. I'm putting my reputation on the line here by bringing him to you. I want you to give him your best rates. No price gouging or extra fees or anything. Your best rate. Got it?"

Ginny leaned back, arms crossed over her chest. "Come on Marc, you know I can't make that deal right off the bat. I don't even know what this kid has to offer. These rural folk sometimes have something good, but most of it is low level garbage. You want me to waste a precious exclusivity contract on someone who will bring me garbage? No, I can't promise that."

"I won't bring garbage!" Cass looked between them. The rapid-fire exchange had left him feeling overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted. He just wanted to be out of this room away from the constant barrage of conversation and decisions and bartering that was going on. He felt like he was in the middle of an argument that he didn't know what it was about. He just wanted to get outside.

"I have a lot of unique and valuable stuff. Most of it we need but I can probably get my mom to let go of some of it."

Ginny scoffed. "Your mom? Marc, get this kid out of here. I'm not dealing with someone who needs permission from his mommy to make a deal."

"Wait!" Cass said, voice a little too loud. "Just wait. I only mentioned her because we're trying to arm our people. We may not be able to spare it. But I know where to get more, unique stuff. A lot of it."

Ginny leaned forward again, interested. "Okay kid, you have my attention. What kind of stuff are we talking about?"

"High level beast cores, item drops from exotic animals, items from robotic enemies, maybe even some steampunk inventions that I know you haven't seen before."

"Huh…" Ginny looked thoughtful. Her eyes turned a light blue and she looked to be reading something, fingers touching points in the air and swiping at things Cass couldn't see. After a few moments her eyes turned back to normal. "Okay kid, if you can deliver items like that we have ourselves a deal. But before we do anything, you need to pay your Concierge."

Cass nodded and pulled items from his dimensional space, laying them out onto the table. Ginny began Identifying them.

"Toxic Weaver Dagger. Fairly common but they sell out quick, it'd be a waste to pay the auction fees. Just sell it for 25 credits - it'll go today. Dust Devil Rattler Scale Shield that has been enhanced with kinetic rebound effects… how quick do you need the money? You could get a pretty penny for these on auction, but they're required to be up for seven days."

"Sorry, I think I need it right away. I need to start recruiting people and I think I'll need the money for it."

Ginny sighed. "I could loan you the money for a small fee. You'd get more in the market that way, although the overall profit would be less. Anyway, think about it. What else do you have?"

They went through the items one by one. Ginny's composure broke when she saw the healing pills and the healing injector.

"Holy… do you know what you have here? I mean, we have healing potions, but to have something this compact that restores this much health all in the size of a pill bottle? And the emergency injector for people who are unconscious and can't swallow a potion… kid, these are going on auction and I don't care what you say. Trust me, you want to wait for these to sell."

"Okay, but I need the money by the end of the week. There's only two weeks left until the Challenge, I don't want to push it."

"No worries kid, these will go for big money and people will be begging you to bring more back. That's another good reason to go exclusive with me - no one will know your identity. If people knew you were capable of making these you wouldn't be able to step foot within 100 miles of Milwaukee without someone trying to capture you. You ever play The Sims?"

"A little…" Cass said hesitantly.

"You'd be the painter that they stuck in the basement before removing the door. You'd be locked in a basement producing these pills and injectors all day and night. Speaking of, this really isn't my business, but be careful how much you tell people about where you are from and what you have there. I'm guessing if you have all this 'cool stuff' you mentioned you have some pretty high level crafters or smiths there. No one is going to cause a ruckus over good gear or equipment, but stuff like this that saves lives? Or crafters who can make something truly unique? Those things matter and people will literally kill to get them. Don't show all your cards until you trust someone."

Cass tried to swallow through a dry throat. Had he already said too much? But no, these two were helping him and seemed to have his best interests at heart. He could trust them.

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