Chapter 148: Orc In A Suit – Chapter 148

As Ace exits the leather workshop, he glances over at the town hall but shakes his head. While the temptation of seeing what is up with the only building they actually built themselves is tempting, he wanted to get through the rest of them first. Good thing there isn’t much left, just the general store and the delver store.

Of which Ace heads towards the general store first. Anything to do with the dungeon is going to be its own bundle of fun and so can wait its turn. Without even a glance at the delver store right next to it, Ace enters the general store.

And once inside he finds just about what he expected. A room stuffed full of shelves with the oddest assortment of things. Though the sheer breadth of what is available does shock Ace. While so far it has felt like the System was very much into knocking people back tech wise, the shelves tell a different story. Modern looking bandaids are sat next to poultices you’d expect a witch to give you and on the other side a wand labeled “the ultimate cut sealer”.

On the back wall are innumerable potions, pills, and pastes. In front of that sits an older woman manning a counter with a number of devices both magical and high-tech that look suspiciously like cell phones. That last bit of course draws Ace’s attention.

The lady behind the counter sighs when she sees him attracted to the display. “I assume your world developed handheld communication devices, then?”

Ace nods his head as he continues to look through the options and so misses when she rolls her eyes. “Well, I’m going to have to disappoint you. These won’t be half as useful as you expect them to be for a few hundred years yet. Magic does a lot of things but at the low end everyone is still stuck with the same limitations. Even if your world had satellites up before the system came, they’re all gone now and without something to bounce a signal off of any of the affordable options are reduced to walky talky level tools.”

At this Ace does look up. “Shouldn’t we be able to at least put up some kind of signal repeater or some such?”

The lady shrugs, “Yes, but it wouldn’t do much good. The reason it will take a few hundred years to get your satellites back isn’t because your tech can’t do it anymore. The reason it isn’t happening and why there aren’t any up there is because high level fliers love to knock them down. This wouldn’t be a problem if they were closer to the planet because the system does a decent job keeping the high level critters away. That however means any flyer that feels stifled by the system will just keep flying up until it isn’t anymore.”

“For ground based repeaters that wouldn’t be a problem. Except now every monster can get at them and they dislike the signal the tech ones put off and the magical ones are just seen as a tasty snack to boost their power. So instead of having to worry about the occasional high level flier you would be dealing with a flood of every monster imaginable as whenever one gets close to it they will try to attack it.”

Ace frowns, “Could we at least get it so they work within the town and around it? Communication was an important thing here before the system and something as simple as this would go a long way to easing some worries.”

The lady taps the display and all the tech options drop away as well as the more intricate magical devices. Left behind are a handful of palm sized rectangles and a couple of sets with one large box and a number of small pins. “These are your options. I’ve limited it to the low-end magic options because part of what makes them low-end is that they have to hook into the town hall to work.”

“The bigger ones are standalone. You get one and as long as someone else has any communication device that can hook into the town hall you can call them. The other two are sets. The box goes in the town hall and it creates a private network. The pins are small enough and you can change their design so more than a few towns use them as the badge of authority for their guards.”

“Also, both types are well out of range for your pocket book right now. For the all in ones the going price starts at a gold and for the other type the base station’s go for ten. Luckily the pins are cheap at only five silver but yeah. If tech was an option that always tends towards the cheaper but not an option. For now, let me direct your attention to this other section!”

The lady walks out from behind the counter and guides Ace to a case filled with rolled up scrolls and clay tablets. “Scrolls and tablets are wondrous things! Scrolls for flexibility and tablets for ease of use and cost. The simplest one off way to communicate is a connected tablet. Costs five coppers and when one is broken, the other breaks as well! Not in the same manner, mind you or else they would be a lot more useful.”

“Though one word of warning that covers all methods of communication. Unless noted otherwise, they do not work between dungeon floors. Anyway, the next option is scrolls of written message. They cost 30 copper and when used allow a simple message of up to ten words to be sent. Though the magic behind it is persnickety about your wording. The most common catch people run into is that it counts contractions as the base words so, for instance, can’t become can not. The message is sent by writing down what you want and activating it, which will cause the message to appear on the paired piece of paper. Just the words, though. It loses all the uniqueness that handwriting normally comes with.”

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She appears to be about to go on about the next item when Ace interrupts her. “While your sales pitch is quite good, I do have other buildings to check. I’m sure there will be enough people with cash in to buy things. Though don’t show the communicators to anyone else without my permission.”

And before she can start talking again Ace speed walks out the door. With a sigh he looks around, just the delver store between him and the town hall. Though after the experience with the general store he isn’t quite so sure about wanting to check it out. Still, that is what he said he was going to do and so that is what he is going to do.

Ace walks over to the delver store and takes a look at it from the outside. Whereas the other buildings had used bones sparingly as accents, this place was decked out in them. Wherever you could stick a bone and make it look good, someone had stuck two. And not just bones but hides, horns, and anything else that might come off a monster. While the main structure is still made of wood, it takes looking between the decorations to see it.

Once inside, Ace sees much of the same thing except more delicate things such as feathers are included as well. In fact, the decorations take up so much space on the ceiling and walls that the only place with product is in the center of the store on free standing racks. Even then those racks are made of delicately carved bones.

Behind a counter stands an orc. Ace wasn’t going to say that until it was confirmed but the man matches the media portrayal of orcs down to a T. The biggest bit of dissonance to the whole thing, shop included, is the fact the orc is wearing a well tailored suit of some kind. It isn’t one of the classical suits from pre-system but has similar lines to it.

The orc steps out from behind the counter with a smile that is visible despite the protruding tusks on his lower jaw he makes a half bow. “Welcome to my store! I pride myself in carrying only the best so when adventures get exciting, you can enjoy it. My tribe has been in charge of this company for many years now and no matter what the local dungeons throw at you I can acquire a solution if we don’t already have it here.”

As the orc straightens up Ace nods, “Nice to meet you. Now we don’t really have much money hanging around at the moment having just started the town but I’m sure we will need things soon enough. Despite being a new dungeon, it has at least four floors. How about you tell me a couple of the things that shock people to find is available but end up being very important?”

The orc nods, “An interesting question! To answer it, let’s start with my personal favorite. While not on display, I have one magical pop-up boat available for purchase. A little costly at five gold but most devler gear tends to fall into the gold economy instead of the silver. All it the device is, is a specially prepared hide boat except it uses magic for structure instead of physical support. Able to fold up smaller than a common sleep roll yet fit six people and their supplies. It is absolutely necessary if a dungeon figures out the secret of how a big puddle can stop adventurers dead in their tracks.”

“And of course right after that I can’t forget the ever faithful continual light marbles. Cheap and effective being one of the few things I’m surprised aren’t sold at general stores instead. For only ten silver you can get a single marble, other shapers are available, which have had the continual light spell cast upon it. A decent light source that puts out more light than a torch and doesn’t foul the air when in tight spaces. Of course they only work in places with magic and are stupidly easy to dispel so a backup light source is important. Though I would say the same no matter what you choose as your main.”

“Last but not least, something you can’t afford! That doesn’t narrow it down much of course. Like I said, delvers tend to be on the gold standard. Most things in here start at a gold and go up. Still, since it is a new dungeon, don’t be afraid to bring any interesting drops around. I’ll pay some of the better rates you see for at least the first few and even beyond that depending on the usefulness.”

“Where was I? Oh right, the last thing costs 50 gold. The bodysuit to beat all under armour within its price range for one simple reason. The enviro-complete suit! Through special enchantments this one size fits all suit will cover your entire body, including a clear face shield, and goes under whatever armour you wear. For an extra five gold it will even fade to invisibility until you actively use it. And what a use it has!”

“It provides life support in a number of key areas. The suit will keep you protected from extreme heat and cold. It will regulate the internal gravity so even if you’re hanging by your feet the blood won’t all run to your head. The air will be at just the right humidity for your comfort. The faceplate even provides some protection from bright lights. It even has an internal air supply that can keep you going for a good 30 hours.”

“Though I will admit it isn’t too powerful. Sudden spikes aren’t going to be handled too well, which means a fireball to the face will still burn and blind you. The gravity feature is honestly the most powerful thing as it reorients gravity within the suit. On the other hand this also means it isn’t able to increase or decrease gravity either so zero g and heavy g will suck just as much. Overall though the suit should keep you safe from the more common hazards you might find over the first fifty floors of a dungeon barring special cases.”