I Have An SSS-Rank Service System: Hire Me For Anything!-Chapter 5: Meeting With Maya
Today, Dory had a lot to do before the next day, which was the day he would go to the market square. First, he washed all the iron ingots using his basic cleaning abilities, earning seven hundred Service Points in the process and bringing his total to one thousand two hundred Service Points.
He felt a wave of satisfaction seeing Horg’s expression after making the iron ingots look new again.
Still, that didn’t guarantee he would sell all the ingots tomorrow. There would be multiple sellers at the square with new, fresh ingots. He had to come up with ideas, and so far he had three, though they might not be very helpful. He actually had four, but the fourth was kept on pending as he wasn’t ready to make semi-fraudulent money.
"Hey, that makes it five," he whispered.
He smiled as a fifth idea popped into his head. He was currently standing in front of a small grocery shop, waiting for the seller to come out.
The person who emerged from the shop was a young girl his age. Her black hair was tied into buns and secured with simple wooden pins. She wiped her hands on a stained apron, her eyes widening when she saw the boy standing there. Like everyone else in the village, she knew exactly who he was.
"Dory? What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice cautious. "My father is at the mill. We aren’t buying any opportunities today."
Dory didn’t take offense. He simply adjusted his cracked glasses. "I’m not here to sell, Maya. I’m here to buy. I need two jars of your cheapest cooking oil and a sack of fine river sand."
Maya looked at him like he had grown a second head. "Cooking oil? You’re a beggar, Dory. You can’t even afford bread."
Dory reached into his pocket and pulled out a few coppers, which were part of the small advance Horg had given him for his week of loyalty. The sight of the coins shut her up. As she went to fetch the items, Dory’s mind raced through his strategy. He had already come up with a lot, but he wanted to start with a basic selling strategy: a lube and buff idea. He would oil the iron ingots and buff them with the fine sand to create a passivation layer. It would prevent the iron from rusting even if it rained tomorrow, unlike the fresh ones from other blacksmiths that would spot as soon as the humidity rose.
There were still countless other basic ideas, like using [Spatial Optimization] to arrange the metals in a honeycomb manner to prove the ingots were perfectly uniform. If they fit together with zero gaps, it proved the craftsmanship was mathematically precise.
And many more ideas, but since they were still basics, there was a high guarantee other blacksmiths were also coming up with basic ideas of their own to try and sell the most.
"Too much work," Dory muttered.
"No," Dory said, handing her the coppers. "Nothing much."
He looked around and activated [Environmental Heatmap]. Then, he turned to Maya with an innocent smile. As if already understanding that smile, Maya shook her head before he could even speak.
"No, no. Not today. I am not falling for it today."
Dory shook his head. "No. I am offering a deal. Can I clean your shop inside and out? In exchange, I get the leftover wooden crates in your backyard and a small space on your storefront for an hour tomorrow morning."
Maya paused, her hand gripping the jars of oil. She looked back at the interior of the grocery shop; it was a mess!
"Just for some old crates and an hour of floor space?" she asked skeptically. "What’s the catch, Dory? Are you going to talk me into putting my father’s coins into your pocket?"
Dory chuckled, the sound dry but confident. "The only thing I’m taking is the dirt. Think of it as a free trial of my services. If the shop doesn’t shine like a polished diamond, you can keep the oil and the sand for free."
Maya looked at the coins he had already paid, then at the filth on her floor. "Fine. But if you break anything, Horg will be the least of your worries."
Dory didn’t waste a second. As soon as she stepped aside, he stepped in.
[System Notification: New Cleaning Mission!]
[Complexity: Low!]
While he worked, he used his [Environmental Heatmap] to reorganize the jars on the shelves. He placed the colorful, expensive jams at eye level and moved the heavy sacks of grain to the bottom to prevent structural stress on the shelving.
By the time he was done, the shop looked much better.
[Ding! Mission Complete!]
[Reward: 300 Service Points]
[Total SP: 1,500]
Maya stood in the center of the room, breathless. "It... it smells like lavender and cedar. How did you do this in forty minutes?"
"It’s called consumer psychology, Maya. People buy more when they feel like they’re in a place of order," Dory said, wiping sweat from his brow. He began dragging the old, discarded wooden crates out to the backyard.
These crates were his fifth idea. While other blacksmiths would show up at the market with their ingots piled in ugly, heavy iron carts, Dory was going to create something akin to a limited edition line. He would break the crates down and use Horg’s tools to rebuild them into small, sleek carrying cases, each holding exactly five ingots.
Still a basic idea, though.
Dory had 1,500 SP now. He opened the System Shop and scrolled past the 2,000 SP metal-making package. He didn’t need to make metal yet.
He clicked on a cheaper item: [Standardized Measurement Stamp - The Bureaucrat’s Trust] (800 SP).
"Horg thinks I’m just cleaning," Dory whispered to himself as he headed back to the forge. "But tomorrow, I’m going to introduce this village to the concept of Certified Quality Control."
"Now, for the second part. Uhm, Maya, can I have those dried apple slices that are too tough to chew, and that barrel of small, tart plums no one wants?"
Maya frowned. "Those? I was going to throw them out or feed them to the goats. Why?"
Dory smiled. "Nothing much. Just hand them over. Oh, and you might want to tell your mom to be available tomorrow. I don’t think you’ll be able to handle the customers pouring in."
