09 – Slice of life day

The mushroom stew was… not very good. I blamed my lack of culinary skills and my lack of fungal knowledge for the bad taste before I threw it away. I had the core, and I could treat myself to a meal in town with the money from the quest. Liù seemed very happy about the whole idea of eating at a restaurant, so we made record time coming back to the city. The real deal were my new boots, enchanted to the brim with powerful magic right at the cusp of what I could manufacture. They allowed me to walk incredibly fast, spending a meager amount of mana from my now gigantic mana pool. Courtesy of one of the many enchanted rings on my fingers.

“You know who else used to walk very fast? Cultivators.”

Liù perked up at the mention of Cultivators, the kind of people I despised most in the whole multiverse.

“Yeah, them. They have these whole… martial arts and techniques thingy. Disgusting. Some of them specialize in mobility, and… yeah, well. I copied one of those techniques and created the ritual to enchant these boots.”

The pixie stuck out her tongue and faked a gag.

“Damn,” I laughed. “Is it so bad? Should I just throw them away?”

She shook her head.

“Righto. Let’s be hypocrites and use them if it benefits us. Shall we?”

The guild looked busier than usual; with a small line of armored adventurers I had never seen before waiting to enter. I spotted a lot of Tier 8 and 9 people among the sea of sevens and sixes. No Tier 10s yet, the only one I knew being Lisette.

“Not worth it.” I told the pixie. “There’s an address on the back of the Quest, why don’t we check that out instead of waiting in queue?”

She seemed happy at the idea of visiting the city, and so began our quest to find Billytines Avenue in Noctis with no prior knowledge of the city. Fortunately, an elderly lady was very helpful in providing directions, and after a few minutes of deliberately slow walking we were in front of the shop. It was a tiny thing, a wooden building encroached from all sides by the two or three-story stone buildings that made up this part of town like thin fingers that reached up into the sky from the ground below. Among the grey of the bare rock and bricks that made me think of Earth Shapers rather than stonemasons, the wood and huge glass windows of the shop were a stark contrast.

Uncle Billy’s weaponry, the sign read. Even from outside I could see the faint glow of magical weapons, visible to me thanks to a particular property of my helmet that allowed me to see magic. On display were various armor sets, swords and even a bow that sported a huge green gem encased in its sturdy wooden frame.

Autumn sale! Everlasting bow of Might and Leaf – Yours for 87 gold pieces!

The little bell at the top of the swinging door chimed, stealing Liù’s attention away from the weapons in their cases.

“Hello.” I said to the empty room. Beside the weapons, nobody could be seen. Not customers, not seller.

“One moment please,” came a voice from the back.

A tiny door opened, revealing the back of the shop for barely a moment. I could see crates of weapons stashed upon each other, spears, bows and piles of gems overflowing from small pouches and leather bags. The small corridor that weaved through the apparent mess was hidden by the figure of a short man with a rusted iron-red beard, long eyebrows and deep set eyes surrounded by too many wrinkles.

“Hello, I’m Dwymer. What brings you here, young lad? Looking for a weapon?” the man said in a heavy accent.

Dwarf! And definitely not uncle Billy.

“I’m here to deliver you this core,” I said after clearing my voice. “As per guild Quest.”

“Ah yes, the core. Give me, let me see.”

He took out a pair of spectacles and began to look over the core, almost burying his face in it. “Very good, very good,” he muttered every now and then, the voice coming from beneath the beard that spilled over the gem like a waterfall.

I looked away from the hunched figure and fiddled with my guild token. It had an interactive menu like an Earth hologram, and I navigated it until I selected the quest. Now the merchant only needed to mark it as complete, and I could be paid.

“Is it to your liking?” I asked.

“Yes, yes. It’s perfect. Thank you. Did you have any problems getting it?”

“Nah. It was just a tiny fire sprite.”

“You went all the way to the enchanted forest?”

“Yeah. The map said I could find Tier 9 spirits there and, let me tell you, the view alone was worth the trip. I was enchanted indeed.”

“It’s a deadly place, and you went there for the scenery!” The man roared with laugher. “You’re a strange lad. Well, Ishrin,” he said after reading my name on the token. “Here. Marked as complete. Let me fetch the money for ya.”

He disappeared in the back and reappeared one moment after.

“Thank you.” I said.

“Don’t mention it. I really should be the one to thank ya. I really need this core for a weapon my brother is making, down at the forge. With all that’s been happening around here lately, all the queer stuff, ya know. I reckon these newer weapons will sell well. But ya need expensive ingredients to make them, found in dangerous places.”

“I see, I see.” I said. “Queer stuff. You will have to tell me more one day. About the queer stuff.”

“Ha! Don’t mind me saying. I’m ancient, not used to all these… changes, if ya catch my drift. What’s queer for me is normal for you youngsters.”

I nodded slowly. He wasn’t the first to mention queer stuff, and yet…

“Say, if you see anything you like around here call me, yes? I’ll be in the back.”

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Liù chimed to get my attention.

“Oh? What do we have here? A Pixie of the Light? Is she your summon?”

“Yeah,” I said. I was impressed Dwymer knew of pixies. “Her name is Liù.”

“Love it. Reminds me of the Easteners. Strange folk. Used to trade with them long ago.”

“She seems to have taken a liking to that sword!” I laughed. “It’s too heavy Liù. You gotta settle for something smaller.”

“Don’t be so sure lad. It’s a magical item.”

I looked at the price. 144 gold pieces. I could sense the magic coming from the sword, snaking around its exquisitely decorated hilt, around the double-edged polished blade that shone in silver and adamantium. The red blood gem at the base glimmered. This was a sword that could withstand Liù’s light bursts and even help her to focus them.

But it was expensive.

“I can make it so it can shrink on command. Reduce its weight too. The blade is coated with indestructible metals so that it never loses its perfect edge. The gems in the handle channel magic and focus it. Your little friend, Liù, could really benefit from having such a weapon. I can see why she wants it!”

I eyed the dwarf, then Liù. Dwymer talked like a real salesman, losing even his accent in the process, and Liù was sold. She pulled on my shirt and pointed at the blade.

“Fine. If we save enough money, and you behave…” I looked at the little pixie. She was nodding furiously. “I will buy you the sword.”

***

On the way back to the guild I decided that it was time for another ritual, making use of the Mirror Orb to create a whole pocket dimension where I could cast in peace. This opened up some possibilities I couldn’t do in the wild, plus I also had a lot of mana now, thanks to the two golden rings I carried on my index fingers. I definitely had enough to perform Left Hand of Aer’Naari. Coupled with Hand of Aer’Naari, that I already had active on me, the two would make a set. What would have been +80% strength and +80% dexterity if taken singularly will become +100% to both once I was done. It was a good deal, however it also required an ingredient that I sadly didn’t have.

I stopped in the middle of the road to double check, but it looked like there was no trace of Derillomuf in my storage. It was a common ingredient, a crystallized dew coming from a tree that commonly grew in magically dense places. But it was not used in many rituals, hence why I didn’t have any in my old-world stash that was brough over to this world.

Fortunately, there was another option. The long queue of new adventurers signing up at the guild had vanished during the time I was at Dwymer’s – Uncle Billy’s – shop, and I entered even though I knew that I would attract the ire of a certain pixie who wanted to go have lunch at a restaurant.

“I know I promised, but can we pleeeease do this little thing first? I just want to see if they have it!”

Liù pouted but conceded.  

“I can look through the Guild database to see if someone is selling it, or if there is a Quest that has the item you are looking for as a possible reward.” The boy at the front desk said.

That was good. Surely somebody somewhere across the whole Guild network had it.

“Sure, thanks.”

“I’m sorry.” The boy said after fiddling with something behind the desk, hidden from view. “I have nothing on the quests side aaaand… and nobody is selling it either.”

“Oh, I see.” I frowned.

“I can put in a request for you, if you want.”

“Sounds good. How does it work?”

“It’s simple. How much are you willing to spend?” The boy asked.

“What’s the market rate for the item?”

“18 gold pieces. If you offer that amount as reward, it’s going to cost you… 25 pieces.”

“Why so much?” I asked. Not that I could afford the base price either.

“Processing fees and transport fees.”

“I see. Thank you. I don’t have the cash on me now, but I’ll be back when I do.”

“Oh, you don’t have to pay now.” The boy said. “You can do it like most people do! Pay only once the quest is completed. The money will be taken from your token automatically, and the items will be sent to the closest Guild. If you don’t have the money, the Guild will pay for you and open a debit line with only a flat 10% interest rate. This way you can also cancel the quest from your Token if you ever manage to get your hands on the item you want on your own.”

Somehow I was sold, and thus the request was out. On my way back to the city center – I had stumbled upon the central square during my wanderings to find the dwarven shop – I tried to make the token work with the money. The way the boy at the guild talked about it made me think that the token could work as a sort of magical pouch, storing the gold pieces on my account in the form of magical data instead of being a physical item. And indeed, as soon as the small round golden coins touched the token, they disappeared in a puff of magic. A line with my current balance (12 pieces and a quest for 25 to be paid at delivery of the item at the guild) appeared in the menus.

“Got it. Definitely a huge step up from using the physical coins. Now, let’s find a place to eat!”

Liù couldn’t be happier.

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