We chatted for a long time and I learned a lot about the region's geography, the current political situation, the goods each country had access to, the ones they were interested in, and so on.
Still, he was just a single person and I couldn't base my whole knowledge on one source only. After leaving him, I asked many more people to confirm everything I heard. One person could lie but if ten people said the same thing, they were either telling the truth, what they thought was the truth, or the city was filled with compulsive mythomaniacs. In simple terms, I was doing market research.
Eventually, I cross-checked my information so much that I was able to get a solid understanding of the situation plus some interesting news. Starting from the conclusion, there were so many rumors that a war was on the brink of beginning between the surrounding countries that there was very little chance it was false information.
The geography of the region was relatively simple. The world had nine continents and the one we were on was called Bankil. Geola was located relatively south on the continent. The only things south from here were a mountain range, followed by a country bordering the ocean.
North of Geola was the kingdom of Makji. It was a matriarchal kingdom where a queen always reigned and men had very little power in society. It was mostly constituted of feline subspecies.
The country of Taifau was located east of Geola, an authoritarian military regime mostly composed of canine subspecies.
Finally, west of Geola was the kingdom of Thuk, a place that accepted any species except for feline and canine subspecies. It was currently under the rule of a king.
It didn't take a genius to understand why these countries hated each other. On top of being inhabited by contrasting species, they had differences in almost every aspect. Distinct population size, incompatible cultures, opposite political beliefs, and dissimilar natural resources. The list could go on. They had been fighting for decades, alternating between skirmishes and full-blown wars.
In the middle of all of that was Geola, a city that acted as a trade hub for these dire enemies. Because the three countries didn't allow any trading with their neighbors except with Geola, the city used this advantage to buy cheaply here and sell expensively there. And the three countries had no choice but to accept it.
The main reason for that was that they didn't have any fighters of high rank. To be precise, any person from those countries who crossed the wall instantly attracted the ire of the other two countries, who attacked them with all they could until they were forced to send the rank 7 to fight and eventually die.
There was a good reason for this. Reaching rank 7 meant that the person could reach rank 8, rank 9, and rank 10. And if that was the case, that would be a repetition of what happened with Geola. Lady Angin, whom they didn't pay much attention to at first, ended up becoming too powerful for them in the end. And now, they couldn't afford to do anything to the free city as long as she was alive. It was well known that a rank 6, for example, could obliterate an army of rank 3 by themselves, and the same applied to higher ranks too. Even though it wasn't clear what rank Lady Angin was at, she seemed to be too much to handle for these countries who usually didn't even have anyone above rank 6, no matter how much larger their army was.
The current tense situation was a boon for me, however. All these countries would soon need war supplies in large quantities. Since the war probably wouldn't start before a few weeks, it was the perfect time to go to one of these places and sell them what they needed at a high price.
After asking for more precise information, I learned that only Makji didn't have an iron mine in their territory, making it the best target by far. War meant weapons and weapons meant iron. I could stock iron weapons and iron ingots to aim for maximum profit. Speaking of which, I still had a few weapons from the bandits that attacked me on my way to Geola. Since I didn't know anything about arms, I had no idea if they were any good but I doubted their quality would be amazing.
Next was about transportation. This one was a little tricky. Technically, I didn't need to do the same as people from the outer world. I could teleport north until I reached a large city in Makji, sell my stuff there, and come back here. Yet, this wasn't a realistic option.
First, things were different from Geola where no one paid me much attention when I arrived. In that kingdom, everyone was of a similar subspecies, and there was no doubt they would start to ask questions if someone they had never seen before popped out of nowhere.
The second problem was that my storage had a limited capacity. At rank 4, it was about the size of a small room, which was nice, but still wasn't enough for a large trade like I intended to do. Of course, I could teleport back and forth multiple times but we would come back to the first issue.
Finally, there was something about security. I posed as a rank 0, and there was little doubt that I could run into trouble because of that. Even if I showed that I was rank 4, that would make little difference. I would just go from being nothing to being mediocre. I could always escape if necessary but that would never allow me to sell anything.
In conclusion, I needed to create a proper caravan and ask for professional fighters to escort me back and forth.
I had a lot of work in front of me but that was exciting in itself. Who knew I would do something that was only ever narrated in historical or fantasy games and novels? Even though the main character of those stories often was on the escorting side, I liked being on the employer's side.
As a merchant, I wasn't supposed to use violence if I could help it. The main point was to pay other people to do the brawling for me.