His sudden "command" to "strip" made all the girls stop their actions. Their eyes turned toward him, who was topless at the moment, and all thought the same thing.
"I see..." Arianne sighed, as if disappointed. "In the end, even Sir Axel is a man..."
After letting the woman beside her hold her unfinished bread, she stood up and slowly pulled the tattered rag of a robe she was wearing.
For the first time, Axel was able to clearly see her figure, clad in what looked like light armor over a white dress. To his surprise, she wasn't muscular like he expected of a knight. Rather, she... was way too "feminine," specifically her curves. His eyes couldn't help but track the two bulges facing his way, jiggling lightly with every move.
"Ahem!"
Axel cleared his throat before extending a hand forward. "Pass me that robe." And demanded.
"..."
Wordlessly, Arianne followed, passing the tattered piece of cloth over, before continuing to move her hand and begin removing the rest of her clothes... but stopped soon after.
"Huh?"
As soon as she gave the robe over to Axel, he turned around, sat down on the ground, and made the robe disappear. It was as if he lost interest in her after he got what he wanted.
Realizing this and the fact that she misunderstood what he meant, Arianne's cheeks blushed slightly before moving her hand back down and sitting quietly on the ground.
Right. Axel wasn't demanding "that" kind of service!
Rather, he wanted to get his hands on the tattered robes that the girls were wearing, thinking that he could use them instead of his only long-sleeved shirt, left hanging by his little tent to dry. After all, this process was irreversible.
"Let's see..."
Before Axel's eyes was the Crafting tab.
After skimming through the shop for a few minutes earlier, he figured something out. The "rule" for the pricing of items. It wasn't actually random or anything. Rather, the price is directly correlated to the inherent value of its raw materials and the "depth" of its manufacturing process.
For example, water being 1 Colt per gallon is due to it being a "basic" item. A raw material, per se.
With that in mind, Axel searched the entire database for anything that he could craft (via asking Navi about recipes) with his current materials. An item that is priced enough to be profitable, has a high demand, and is easy to manufacture... and with that, he found the perfect item.
'Voodoo Doll!'
From the shop, it was described as an indispensable, consumable item for witches to cast their curses. Of course, the higher the class of material used, the more expensive the Voodoo Doll gets.
However, it's not like all witches are experts. Others still need to "train" their skills, but buying expensive Dolls would hurt their wallets in the long run. Thus, the "Practice Voodoo Doll" existed.
'I don't know which world these witches exist in, but I'll be taking advantage of the demand for these products right now!'
Making the Voodoo Doll was easy enough.
He just needs to arrange five sticks in the 3x3 crafting box, filling the middle and lowest lines except the middle of the lowest line. Something like a "C" drawn facing down. After that, he just needs to add a piece of cloth in the middle of the top line, and crafting will automatically proceed.
That piece of cloth was, of course, from dismantling the tattered cape he got from Arianne. The almost rag-level cape turned into 8 pieces of clean cloth after dismantling, which allowed Axel to create eight new Voodoo Dolls!
After pressing Create continuously until he ran out of materials, he quickly moved back to the sell section of the Shop Menu. From there, he quickly sold all eight Voodoo Dolls he had just made.
"Now we wait..."
He muttered, about to be patient and wait until his items are bought... but to his surprise, all the dolls were bought seconds after they were posted. They were selling like hotcakes despite being priced at 1,000 Colts each!
To Axel, however, his concern was a bit different.
"Damn! These witches are rich!"
Rather than the speed of his items selling out, it was the purses of his customers that he noticed! He even went as far as checking his selling history, only to find the same name buying all of his products at once, WitchyGura! It was no scalper, but rather, a real witch at that!
With this information, he figured out that the demand for cheap voodoo dolls was beyond his imagination. He knew that he could take advantage of this, at least for the immediate future!
"Anyway..."
But Axel ignored all that information for now. Instead, he focused on buying something from the market quickly... something that cost him 500 Colts.
In just a moment, after withdrawing the item, he then turned around and extended a hand toward the sulkily eating Arianne. "Arianne, here, for you." And offered.
"Huh?"
Everyone was shocked at his action and turned to what he was holding... a new robe, one that was a lot better compared to their tattered one earlier!
She carefully received the item, inspecting it with awe. "Sir Axel... You fixed my robe?"
"Nope." Axel quickly refuted. "This is a replacement. You four, too. Give me your old robes so that I can replace them. They're no longer able to do their functions in that state anyway, right?"
As soon as he turned to the others, a new sort of chaos ensued.
"Y-Yes, please! Here!"
"Mine first!"
"C-Can I get a red one instead...?"
They all rushed to remove their robes, others even flipping their clothes over in the process, and giving Axel a great sight for sore eyes. Soon enough, he has four tattered robes in his hands, with four pairs of eyes watching his every action with curiosity and excitement.
"Hah..."
Axel sighed, turning around, and tried to ignore the attention they were giving him, trying to focus on his task.
Since he did it once already, he finished the rest much faster, completing 32 pieces of new Voodoo Dolls and selling them all. Then, he spent a further 2,000 Colts to buy the replacement robes for the girls, with some variations as requested.
"Wahh! Thank you, Sir Axel~!"
"What a pretty robe... is this silk? It's smooth to the touch!"
"This... is definitely an expensive product, right? Maybe costing 5 gold coins each, at least..."
Although everyone's interest in Axel rose thanks to his "act of selflessness," receiving their tattered robes and giving them expensive-looking ones instead... It was actually him who profited in this process.
Considering he sold a total of 40 Voodoo Dolls, he earned 40 thousand Colts. Then, in return, he spent a small fraction of it, 2,500 Colts, to raise his favorability towards the others. He gained money, and he gained affection. Two birds at once!
It was profiteering at its finest!