Chapter 38: Chapter 37: An afternoon of shopping

After leaving the messaging guild, I just wandered around in the hope of finding something interesting. Guillards guild was located on one of the semi-major roads, which means that a lot of other businesses are also located on this road. Most buildings have a shop or a workspace on the ground floor. 

As I walk further away from the main road I walk past bakeries, tailors and other shops. A jeweler catches my interest, but I only note it down for now since I want to walk a bit to clear my head.

After a while of walking through the self parting throngs of people, I come across a curious arrangement of smiths. There are sixs smiths, with three on either side of the road, all working in the open on various metal implements.

I walk over to one of the dwarves that I don’t sense any mana from and he is hammering on a large piece of metal, shaping it seemingly without heating it. I just stand there curiously studying it while he hammers into the shape of the head of a pickaxe.

After he is satisfied with the general shape of it, he grunts in satisfaction before turning to me and say “Anything I can do for ya, miss?”

I don’t know why I didn’t expect him to notice me, but after a short moment of realization, I answer back “Not really. I’m just admiring your work.”

After a scoff, he continues “Wouldn’t it be easier to observe the mana users across the street?”

As he says that I notice that the smiths are indeed separated with the mana users on the other side and the stamina users on this side.

“Sure, but I know a lot about mana, your methods are new to me.” I answer back honestly, though it seems to annoy him slightly.

“I’m not a street entertainer, so unless you have some business with me, please leave. You are scaring away other potential customers.”

Sure enough, a small clearing has formed around me like usual and I decide to honor his request. As I leave, A small idea forms in my head. If James doesn’t want to fight, he should have no problem with crafting. About half of the crafters I have seen have had mana, meaning the rest had some amount of stamina. Crafting in the game never specified if it used mana or stamina, but now it’s clear that either can be used. I mean, It should have been obvious from how enchantments are also possible with both.

Feeling like my head has been sufficiently cleared, I walk back and stop at the interesting shops along the way. Most of them are duds with little of interest, and the clerks seem almost afraid when I enter their stores.

The exception is the jeweler, which is manned by a dwarf couple. The husband has no mana and the wife has a lot of mana, almost as much as Dallard. They have a large selection of both jewelry, wands and various small arms.

They are both polite, though the husband seems to have gotten a tip from his wife along the way. In the end I buy a hairpiece made of silver with a small rose made of amethyst.

The new hairpiece kinda makes me want to find a purple outfit to go with it, but none of the tailors have anything of interest. More than a few would be able to make something to order, but it’ll have to wait since we leave in the morning.

Once I arrive back at the inn, I slap myself on the forehead since I realized that I could just have ordered an outfit, since we’ll be back in a week. 

It seems like the others are still out doing whatever, so I just order some fried river fish for dinner.

Halfway through my meal, Jo enters the room and sits down at the table. After taking a look at what I’m eating, she orders the same and we start discussing what we did during the day.

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It’s probably an hour later when James walks back inside. His beard has gotten steadily bigger since we met up in Ulmsville, and by now it’s a full beard, albeit not all that long. He seems to have gotten it and his hair professionally styled today. He orders a meaty dish and joins us at the table, recounting his day at our insistence.

Eventually I broach the topic that since he doesn’t want to fight anymore, he should take up crafting, in one form or another. He hesitates at first, stating that he never did it before, implying that Jools never specced into crafting.

I encourage him by saying that he has everything needed to start learning, and it’s never too late to learn something new. He turns it around and asks about me and I answer honestly that I have done some in the past, though at the moment, I’m teaching Jo and crafting my flying spell.

The discussion goes on for a good while with me encouraging him, and Jo mostly abstaining from the conversation.

Soon enough I feel the need to sleep, and I head back to my room. The bathtub is once again too tempting and I fail to resist its draw, though I don’t fall asleep in it today.

 

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In a tastefully decorated office in the Aeshraton palace, sits a young dwarf with a crown made of yellow agate and decorated with amethyst. As he works his way through the paperwork needed to keep the city running, his loyal butler enters his office. The old human worked for his father when he was running the city, but since the current lord inherited the throne, the butler has worked for him. 

After a few minutes of silent paperwork, the lord gestures for the butler to speak.

“My lord.” he says while bowing slightly before continuing “I have a report on the S rank adventurer who entered the city yesterday.”

The Lord nods and the butler continues “She refused your summons by claiming to not be a citizen and stating that she will refuse to meet with you until the reason is stated.”

“And did you give her the reason?” the Lord questions with his baritone voice.

“No, my lord. I took my leave after that since it is likely only a pretense as she gave the feeling of not wanting to meet with nobility. Had I told her about the quest to clear out the mines, she likely would have told us to go through the guild.

Later in the day, our spies observed that she sent a letter directly to the Zendor royal family. As per usual the messaging guild refused to share the content of directly sent letters. 

It seems that the reason she does not want to meet with you is because she is employed directly by the Zendor royal family.”

After the butler finishes his report, the Lord mulls it over for a bit before making his decision. “It will be difficult to employ her to clear the mines. Continue the observation today and extend the invitation again tomorrow, but state the reason this time.”