Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life...

Shopping!

Chapter 115 A Seven-Day Trip to Asgard 4

Thor didn't object to Sherlock's idea of ​​going shopping at all, and even generously offered to pay for the day's expenses.

The reason for this is quite simple. Putting aside everything else, the fact that Sherlock solved Thor's employment problem while he was on Earth, allowing Thor to support himself, is enough for Thor to repay Sherlock.

Not to mention that Sherlock's two pieces of gold not only solved his own financial crisis, but also Jane's financial crisis, which was enough for Saul to be grateful to Sherlock from the bottom of his heart.

This explains the scene we see today where Thor, disguised as a wealthy dog, takes Sharuk out to shop.

Led by Thor, who rode his Asgardian version of an electric scooter while Sherlock and Doro sat on a cloud, the three set off towards Asgard's commercial district.

Led by Thor, a local dog tycoon and powerful figure, they soon arrived at Asgard's largest commercial district.

Sherlock had no idea whether he had violated any Asgardian traffic laws along the way; in any case, he hadn't seen anyone like "Uncle Hat" jump out to stop him.

When the group arrived at Asgard's commercial district, Sherlock was dazzled by the bustling scene before him.

For Thor, who grew up here, everything before him was probably just his everyday routine. But for Sherlock, an outsider, this commercial street in Asgard was full of exotic charm.

The entire commercial street of Asgard looks just like the otherworldly scenes in Japanese anime, except that this one is even more bustling than those anime-style scenes.

The road is lined with Scandinavian-style buildings, with shops packed tightly together, and all sorts of shops that can only be seen in Asgard.

Weapon shops, potion shops, and even small shops that claim to sell alchemy but actually sell magical technology items, along with restaurants and taverns, stretch as far as the eye can see.

The variety of shops gave the commercial street an otherworldly feel, at least to Sherlock.

Meanwhile, the road between the shops on both sides of the street is filled with stalls.

The stall sold an even wider variety of items, a dazzling array that included live animals from outer space and vegetables and fruits that Sherlock had never seen before.

Of course, besides food or things that might be food, there are also many stalls selling second-hand utensils, second-hand weapons, as well as antiques, gems and the like.

The street was packed with people. In Saul's words, you could find whatever you wanted on this street.

"What if I want an adventurers' guild?"

Sherlock had only subconsciously wanted to argue with Thor. After all, although this place seemed to be full of otherworldly atmosphere, it was still Asgard. How could there be adventurers here?

However, to Sherlock's utter surprise, Thor didn't seem bothered by Sherlock's argument at all. Instead, he calmly pointed to the end of the shopping street.

"There's one here too. At the end of this commercial street is a plaza, and in the plaza is the Adventurers' Guild you mentioned!"

"There really is one?"

Sherlock was incredibly surprised and looked at Thor beside him with disbelief. Thor, however, responded to Sherlock's question with a completely matter-of-fact tone.

"Of course there are! Not only is there the Adventurers' Guild, but all three of Asgard's major guilds are located in the plaza at the end. I'm also a member of the Adventurers' Guild, and I'm a Gold-Rank Adventurer!"

Thor chuckled as he spoke to Sherlock, as if it were all perfectly natural. Under Sherlock's persistent questioning, Thor gave him a brief explanation of the so-called three major guilds.

These are the Adventurers' Guild, the Mercenaries' Guild, and the Merchants' Alliance.

The Adventurers' Guild is similar to those in isekai anime, mostly accepting tasks involving gathering and collecting.

The Mercenary Guild mainly takes on small guard or combat hunting missions, while the Chamber of Commerce is an official organization under the royal palace. Its purpose is to regulate the quality and price of goods, somewhat like a combination of the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, the Urban Management Bureau, and the Commercial Court in China.

As Thor led Sherlock and Doro into the commercial street, Sherlock finally understood why Asgard had a guild that was similar to that of another world.

It's very simple, because of demand.

Thor and Sherlock gave a brief overview of the situation in Asgard.

In Asgard, due to the martial spirit of its inhabitants, the consumption of meat is very high. This has led Asgard to find ways to hunt or trap creatures from outer space to replenish its meat supply.

This is also the reason why the Adventurers' Guild exists.

With the emergence of the Adventurers' Guild and the Asgardians' growing fame throughout the universe, some commissions gradually came to them. Most of these commissions were private matters, unsuitable for Odin to approach.

This led to the Mercenary Guild separating from the Adventurers' Guild. Generally, members of the Adventurers' Guild would also register as members of the Mercenary Guild.

As for the last merchant guild, the Merchants' Alliance, it is the oldest and most officially recognized entity, even predating the Adventurers' Guild by a considerable margin.

Listening to Thor's explanation, Sherlock was dumbfounded. He felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It just felt strange.

However, this was not what surprised Sherlock the most. What surprised Sherlock the most was that the most expensive thing sold in the entire Asgardian market was not vegetables, not meat, not even weapons and equipment, but damn seafood!

However, Sherlock quickly figured out why.

Despite the enormous lake beneath the Rainbow Bridge that looks like an infinity pool, Sherlock knows perfectly well that it is not a lake at all, but rather Asgard's water circulation system.

Therefore, all aquatic products in Asgard can only be produced through artificial breeding and cultivation, and the yield is very low.

Asgard, who are descended from Norse mythology, have an innate fascination with two things: seafood and sugar.

Sugar is easy to extract from honey or other crops; the real challenge lies with aquatic products!

Throughout Asgard, seafood is more valuable than freshwater products, which in turn are crustaceans. In other words, sea fish are the most expensive, followed by freshwater fish, and then crustaceans.

Even the cheapest crustaceans are incredibly expensive in Asgard, since the number of farmed crustaceans is always limited, which has led to the creation of a place that shouldn't exist in the first place.

black market!

Chapter 116 A Seven-Day Trip to Asgard 5

Well, compared to other so-called "black markets," Asgard's black market can hardly be called a "black market" at all. After all, it's reached the point where even Prince Thor knows about it, so how could it really be considered a black market?

At most, it can only be considered a 'benefit' that Odin gave to the people of Asgard by turning a blind eye.

In its early stages, the so-called "black market" was actually more of a combination of "illegal fishing teams" and "seafood smugglers," mainly selling seafood from other planets that were secretly caught or purchased.

It has gradually developed into the place it is today, where some 'more dangerous' things can be sold.

Led by Saul, the group turned into a dark alley in the commercial street, and after walking down a doorway for a while, they arrived at the so-called 'black market'.

To put it simply, Sherlock felt this place was more like his mother's seafood market!

Strange and unusual seafood appeared everywhere, some of which looked so disgusting that Sherlock even wondered, "Can this stuff really be sold?"

The reason that ultimately drove Sherlock to his breaking point, forcing him to forcefully drag Doro and Thor away from this damned black market, was because Sherlock saw seafood from some unknown planet inside the black market.

Damn it, how can a fish look like a super-sized cockroach?!

Damn, it's a cockroach as long as an arm! Sherlock felt that just seeing this thing once would give him a lot of psychological trauma for the rest of his life!

To Sherlock's utter dismay, Thor actually said that this thing was actually delicious?

That one sentence was enough to make Sherlock abandon all his curiosity about the black market and pull Thor back to the normal commercial street under the sunlight. It has to be said that the goods here were more in line with Sherlock's aesthetic.

Once back on the commercial street, Sherlock and Doro no longer held back. Doro was very interested in the strange and wonderful snacks of Asgard, including fruits he had never seen before, which made him very happy.

Thor generously spent money to buy Doro a lot of snacks and stuffed them into Doro's little four-dimensional pocket. As for fruit, he didn't buy too much, mainly because fruit spoils easily no matter where you are, so buying too much would be counterproductive.

Sherlock also saw Asgardian currency for the first time at Thor's place.

To be honest, Sherlock once again experienced the charm of another world in Asgard.

Asgard's currency consists of only three basic types: gold, silver, and copper coins! In Thor's words, gold is an absolute hard currency on any planet; the only difference is the purchasing power of a unit weight of gold on different planets.

After inspecting Thor's huge bag of gold coins, Sherlock stopped being polite and started a crazy buying spree.

Asgardian skincare products? Buy them!

The scar removal cream most sought after by Asgardian female warriors? Buy it!

All kinds of jewelry and precious stones? Buy them!

The most authentic Asgardian style clothing? Buy it!

Sherlock bought everything that he had never seen before and that had an Asgardian flair. In the end, he even had to use alchemy to create Asgardian coins to meet his needs.

All I can say is that if Sherlock and Thor didn't both have four-dimensional pockets, they would probably be covered in bags by now, and Sherlock's cloud might even have to act as a shopping cart.

The shopping spree continued until noon, and Doro, Sherlock, and Thor all became very hungry. However, the three of them had some disagreements about what to eat for lunch.

Sherlock no longer wants to eat Asgardian roast meat with bread and beer; he's been eating it so much these past few days that he's almost constipated.

Thor, however, remained obsessed with his combination of grilled meat, bread, and beer.

As for Doro, she'd prefer to eat some vegetables or desserts.

After arguing for a long time, Sherlock eventually spotted a deserted restaurant quietly sitting in a corner of the commercial street. Sherlock overruled everyone's objections and insisted on trying the nearly empty restaurant.

The reason is simple: Sherlock could clearly see a few small Chinese characters under the restaurant's sign.

Sichuan restaurant!

Damn it, when did Asgard get stir-fried dishes?

Wait a minute, how could Asgard, with its own palace where they cook, possibly have roast meat for every meal?

When Sherlock pushed open the door and saw a fat man with a protruding belly, wearing a vest and shorts, a chef's hat, and a full beard, leaning against the bar smoking, Sherlock knew that he had made the right choice!

"Boss! What are your specialties?"

Sherlock spoke in Chinese. Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper, who had been looking bored, suddenly brightened up. However, when he saw Sherlock and Thor enter, the light in his eyes dimmed considerably again.

However, she still enthusiastically introduced the so-called specialty dishes to Sherlock in English, only to be interrupted by Sherlock's frown.

"Boss, stop bringing out these cheap imitations to fool foreigners, and serve some proper Sichuan food!"

Sherlock spoke in Chinese, but when the restaurant owner heard this, his gaze toward Sherlock became incredibly strange. However, he didn't say anything, but simply changed the menu.

With the new menu, Sherlock quickly ordered his food.

Before long, a large bowl of boiled fish, spicy blood curd, spicy chicken, twice-cooked pork, dry-fried green beans, and a large bowl of rice were served on the table. Thor went from being puzzled and disdainful at first, to being amazed after taking the first bite, and finally becoming addicted.

Sherlock and Doro were alright, since Helen and Sherlock often cooked Chinese food, but the taste was definitely not as good as the owner's cooking in the Chinese restaurant in Asgard.

Compared to Thor's seemingly bottomless appetite, Sherlock could only manage to slightly damage the Sichuan dishes on the table.

After Sherlock finished eating, he ordered another dessert for Doro before starting to chat with the owner in Chinese.

Sherlock soon found out why there was a Chinese restaurant in Asgard, which made him look at the owner with increasingly strange eyes.

To be honest, I don't know whether to envy the boss's fate or criticize the choices he has made.

After all, Sherlock truly saw the shadow of Cao Huada, the former Tiger of the Major Crimes Unit and the crime nemesis, in this older brother.

Chapter 117 A Seven-Day Trip to Asgard 6

This guy is indeed from Sichuan or Chongqing, and as for why he ended up in Asgard, we have to mention his fantastical experiences.

As is well known, Asgardians have a great love for seafood, which has even given rise to a black market for seafood.

Where there is a black market, there are naturally resellers and fishing teams. The latter are usually organizations owned by the black market traders themselves, but most resellers are adventurers working part-time.

And coincidentally, the reason this guy appeared in Asgard was related to those resellers, or to put it more bluntly, this guy's wife was a reseller!

This guy is a chef on Earth too, and he's a chef who left his hometown to work in a coastal area.

It was while buying groceries at the market that he saw his future wife, an Asgardian adventurer doing a quest to trade seafood.

At first, the guy thought it was some kind of cosplay. After watching the girl select seafood, he casually gave her a few pointers, and the two quickly became acquainted.

As they contacted each other more often, they gradually became friends, and the older brother's Sichuan cuisine successfully won over the Asgardian female adventurer's stomach.

The two quickly fell in love, and the female adventurer also found a time to reveal her identity to her brother.

At this point, the expression on the guy's face almost made Sherlock burst out laughing; he looked like he was listening to a Sichuan-style stand-up comedy routine.

"You silly goose~ You have no idea how dumbfounded I was when I heard my wife wasn't from Earth~ If I hadn't confirmed she didn't have a zipper, I would have thought I'd been infected with the plague or something!"

As the female adventurer revealed her identity, the two became a genuine interplanetary couple. While most people only travel across borders, these two crossed planets.

In the end, the older brother couldn't stand the long-distance relationship anymore. He figured he was just out there to work anyway, so it didn't matter where he worked. He proposed to the female adventurer and followed his wife to Asgard to resume his old profession.

The reason why the shop was deserted was quite simple. On the one hand, it was because the people were new to the area, and the shop had just been renovated. On the other hand, the Asgardians didn't know much about cooking, which was a new thing.

The few guests he currently has are all his wife's companions, so he's still living off his wife.

Listening to this guy's fantastical life story, Sherlock was at a loss for words.

He's truly brave, and incredibly skilled. Putting everything else aside, just considering their physical abilities alone, this guy's ability to take down that female adventurer shows he's no ordinary warrior.

However, considering that his brother is a man from Sichuan Province, and being henpecked is a family trait, Sherlock didn't find anything wrong with it.

At most, it's just that the older brother might never dare to utter the words "magic cloak" from his own mouth in his entire life.

Looking back at Thor, who was covered in sweat and almost red-faced from eating but still couldn't stop, Sherlock patted his fellow Earthling on the shoulder with great seriousness and said to this god-like older brother.