“So you want me to help her. Let me guess. You asked me to help the slaves there in order to help her.” Turning to Rin my next words are for her. “I’ll get your mom back for you, but there is another issue that I have. What am I supposed to do with a bunch of slaves after I free them?” At this, Timbre goes to open her mouth but I give her a look and she closes it again.
Marcus seems to think about it for a minute but then it looks like he gets an idea. “I have a like-minded friend who lives near the gambling house. He has a large basement that could hold a lot of people.”
“Good. Mark it on my map and then contact him to let him know to expect us tonight. I don’t need him to house them for long, just long enough for me to take care of their collars” I leave the ‘if I can’ statement out of that last part. Handing over my map he marks a spot not far from where the other mark he made is, but farther from the wall to noble town.
After he gives the map back to me he asks “What are you going to do until tonight?”
“Explore. I need to get a feel for the town and I figure I will do a little shopping while I’m at it. If you can tell me where I might find spell and skill books around here it would be helpful.”
“Well there are a few places around town, but market street has the most shops. For spell and skill books though you should try Merl’s Books on Pine. It’s just a little ways off Market. Pine crosses Market street about in the middle of south upper city. Tell Deloris I sent you.” I’m confused a little at his odd look when he mentions Deloris. I have a feeling she is going to be an interesting person to meet.
We say our goodbyes as the women and I follow Marcus down to the common room before leaving the inn. For the next few hours I wander the streets of upper city getting a feel for it. I can’t possibly remember everything but I can get a general idea of where everything is. Plus, my map function fills in the details as I go. Having done a full circuit of upper city in a meandering path we come to Market street. It’s the road we followed to get to upper city from the docks yesterday. Around lunch time we stop at a little café that has a patio with an iron fence around it about waist high to me. Taking our seats outside we order food and watch the people moving around the street between stores.
I eat a sandwich at the café with meat from something I think is like pheasant. I think so, but I never had pheasant before either. For all I know it tasted like peacock. I pay and we leave after noon. Walking down the street we check out a few shops like the armorer and weapon smith. The weapon smith had some impressive things but not so much as the blessed and bound items all of us currently carried. With the soul bindings they have we shouldn’t ever need new weapons because they will grow with us. The armor was a little bit of a different story. All of it was too heavy for everyone other than Timbre, but she could finally upgrade to something a little tougher than the leathers she got from the soldiers we took out in the forest months ago.
Timbre looked over a number of things from a full plate set to heavily studded leather. When she came to a set of gray leather with plates of dark gray metal reinforcing it all over she looked at me with pleading eyes. I couldn’t resist those puppy dog eyes, nor did I want to. It was better than what she has on and with her being in the front lines for our battles I was hoping to find something for her to up her defense. Nodding to her I then help the girls haul all the metal to the counter where the smith is working at a table on the back wall. He is attaching the leather padding that goes under a piece of plate and mail for the chest.
Seeing us he comes over and eyes the armor we have stacked on the counter. He is a burly man with dark tanned skin and a strong chin covered in a singed beard. Under his greasy hair his slate gray eyes look me over. I can see he is a little skeptical that I can pay for the whole thing but all he says is “450 Gold. Won’t take any less.” His gruff voice is to the point. I like it.
I could probably get it for a little less but I’m here to make a few contacts as well as shop and this man seems to be a good smith. Getting on this smith’s good side seems like a smart idea. I reach into the bag at my side and pull out the money. His face takes on an expression of surprise for a moment before going back to impassive and he scoops up the money. “The name’s Harold. Pleasure doing business with you.”
“Nice to meet you Harold. I’m Vol. Have a good day.”
We leave and the smile on Timbre’s face is radiant. Even with the cloak on and the hood up she is getting a few looks from people as we meander down the road. Soon we reach a courtyard with a fountain in the center. Around the square are open air stalls selling goods like a well organized flea market. There is plenty of room to walk around the counters with canvas walls and ceilings to browse the many goods found on them. A few people are crying out the virtues of their goods and others are trying to entice customers by showing off their wares.
We browse a few stands selling everything from jewelry to furniture. I stop at one that has numerous bolts of cloth and some of leather as well. At first I wanted to see if there was some cloth that Azzaria would like for her profession when I see something in the pile of leather to one side that sparks my interest. Something that matches my dear familiar in color. Gold scales glint from the edge of the pile, buried beneath the rest of the materials. I quickly fish out the bundle of leather and inspect it. It’s scaled and thin with a golden color that matches Thia’s feathers. It’s amazingly light and the scales feel really tough.
Golden Drake Leather: Very tough leather that comes from the hide of a gold colored drake. Gold drakes are known for their magical abilities and tough physical resistance. Unfortunately the physical resistance of the material makes it very hard to work into anything usable, and anything made out of it will likely be of low quality. Crafting ingredient. Item class: Epic.
It looks like an amazing thing to make light armor out of, but because of the difficulty of working with it can only produce substandard goods. Still, it matches Thia’s feathers and mine when we merge. Not a great reason to pick materials but it is high quality material. If I can get it maybe I can figure out a way to get passed the crafting limitations. As I look over the material I notice the ragged edges where the skin was cut to be removed from the dead drake. Even getting it off the carcass was a pain from the look of it.
I am interrupted from my inspection by a greasy looking fellow. “Hello there dear customer.”
I nearly cringe at the greeting. This guy reminds me of the worst used car salesmen I have ever heard. He is a human only a little shorter than me and has black slicked back hair. The avarice and greed in his eyes make it clear to all that he is here to make money, not friends. I already want to punch him but I restrain myself and smooth my face. “Hello to you as well.”
“I am Ferl, the owner of this establishment” he tells me in his best approximation of friendly. It isn’t just me that dislikes this guy either. Thia, who is standing next to me, has a spike of annoyance and distaste that makes itself known to me through our bond. “I see you have taken a liking to something here” he tells me with a creepy smile.
Playing it off as nothing I make a face of disappointment. “I thought this was something else. Golden Drake Leather is nearly useless. The color is nice but what’s the point if all you get from it is poor quality goods.”
He looks down at the leather and scales in my hand and I can just see him calculating. “Surely someone of your stature could use something as fine as this for something more mundane. As you said, it is a nice color. Matches gold if you know what I mean.” Here he gives me creepy smile like he is a predator. I’m not sure what he means by that, but I am sure it’s some tactic to measure how much money I have. He also gives a strange look toward some people at a nearby stall. Not one of fear though, that is for sure.
Seesawing my head back and forth I act like I’m considering it. “Okay, it might look nice on a lamp shade or something. How much do you want for it?”
He takes a second as though he is thinking of something. “F
or such an important person as yourself I will give you a discount. Only 200 gold for the whole lot that I have.” Then I see him look off to the side again and make a small nod. I would have missed it if the odd look from earlier hadn’t made me curious as to what he was distracted by.
“Ha, good one. I think I have heard enough.” I set the leather down and start to turn around, not even mentioning a counter offer.
“Sir” the merchant calls out to me. “This has been in my shop for a while so maybe I can give it to you at 100 gold?”
Picking up the leather again I look over the edges purposefully paying special attention to the ragged parts. “No. It’s too much for me to take your leftovers. I may not even be able to use it for anything. Maybe 50 but never so much as 100.”
The merchant gets a gleam in his eyes at the words of possible interest. With the restrictions on the material I probably could get it for less but I don’t exactly know the going rate, and I do want the scaled crafting material. At that moment it hits me. I just came up with an interesting idea that could make it well worth the price. “How about 90 gold then. A fair compromise” he tells me.
Snorting with what I hope seems like disdain I look up from my second inspection of the goods. “Maybe I was wrong. 45 gold seems like a more reasonable amount, if at all.”
With the lowering of my offer I can see confusion cross his face and then a little panic before his expression evens out again. There is the look off to the side again. “I’m afraid I couldn’t sell it for less than 75 gold. Even that I am losing money.”
Tired of the exchange with this detestable example of human greed I give out a sigh. No faking the emotion in it this time. “Fine. You have a deal. I can’t spend more time here anyway, I have somewhere to be.” Still playing the part of some spoiled noble I hand over the gold as if it’s nothing and place my purchase into the magic bag at my side. Without another word I turn and continue up Market street once again with my companions following behind. As I leave though, I see a shifty looking character with a hood over his head looking back to the merchant and then to my party.
I don’t look right at him but I catch sight of him from the corner of my eye as he starts following us at a pace that isn’t too close. Thinking to Thia I send her into a nearby alley. A couple minutes later she is in the air and following us by hopping from roof to roof and watching our pursuer. Actually, it turns out that it’s pursuers since there are two now. Whatever they are following me for it’s obviously not going to be to my liking. So, when I see the sign for Pine where I need to turn I go left, the opposite direction I want to go. Heading a little ways down it I turn off into another alley. Time to see what is up with these thugs.
I made sure it was a dead end before I stepped in so I can have our backs covered. Must have looked bad for us though when the two entered the mouth of the alley. They were confused though when they saw me. The reason? I was alone and no longer accompanied by two women. I used Folded Space before they got here so I could get them on the roof and out of the way. One of the thugs is a skinny looking guy and was the one I spotted with the cloak and hood on. He is pointing a crossbow at me, but with my barrier up I’m not concerned. The other guy has a sword out and it’s pointing at me. He is muscular but not huge and wears a self confident sneer.
“Alright fancy pants. We know you got gold. Hand it over and maybe you get to see tomorrow” the cloaked thug says.
I snort at the clichés I keep hearing from thieves lately. These two are level 13 and 14 so they aren’t pushovers to most. My response makes them halt their advance for a moment. “What is stopping me from just killing you instead and burying your bodies below the street?”
The bigger one without a cloak chuckles darkly as they start forward again. “Oh? And how are you going to do that pretty boy? I’m not falling for your stupid tricks.”
My turn to chuckle darkly. “Well my moronic friend, the answer to your question is simple.” There is a grating sound from behind them as I raise an Earth Wall to hem them in. “Magic!” I tell them when they spin around to see what the noise is. By the time they are turning back to me it’s too late for the big one. Pointing my arms at him I cast Ice Spear with my right and follow that with a Buffet from my left. The wind spell propels my ice attack faster than ever and it rockets forward too fast to track with the naked eye. Off guard as he was, he has no chance to avoid it. The icicle impales him though the center of the chest and pins him to the wall behind him. He grasps the cold instrument of his death with a look of disbelief on his face. Whatever he tries to say comes out a gurgle and he goes limp.
The cloaked figure stares at his comrade for a moment longer before turning to me again. The fear is plain on his face now. With my extraordinarily high intelligence and wisdom my spells can pack a punch higher than my level would suggest and it seems to have left an impression on the mugger. He still speaks though. “Do you know who we work for? You’ll regret this!”
“Really. Do you work for some noble then?” The twitch from his eyes confirms my guess. “Okay so you do. Which one?”
Panic fills his eyes now that I’m prying at his employer. “I’ll never tell scum like you!” his shout is streaked with fear and desperation and he raises his crossbow. Before he can get the shot off Lightning fires from my right hand to connect me to his right shoulder for a moment with its bright, crackling plasma. The electricity makes that side of him tense up and the bolt from the crossbow is released. It pings off my Mana Barrier and skips off into some trash in the alley. While he is trying to recover I release an Earth spike that comes out of the wall I made earlier and impales him through the chest. Blood running from around the stone spike he goes limp, succumbing to the injury as I get to work.
I only have a short time to deal with them before the wall of stone I created reverts to its original state. Just like I said before all this started I use Shape Earth to cause the streets to swallow the bodies. A minute later they are gone, all evidence of the encounter hidden from sight. My spell about to fall, I use Folded Space once more and step through to the roof to join Timbre and Azzaria. Looking off in the direction we came from I use the spell a couple more times. We appear on the roof of a building on the other side of Market on Pine, where we were headed before our tail.
I can hear the commotion of those in the direction of the alley with my encounter but we are far off now. Exiting another alley on Pine we calmly walk, keeping a lookout for Merl’s books. Killing those men back there was not hard in any way. I feel like I should be worried, but I will do anything to keep those I love safe. Maybe I am becoming desensitized to the fighting and death. Shaking off the concerns for what I’m becoming I look around. Just a little ways down the street is a shop with an open book on the sign above the door. I point it out to the girls and we go in. The shop is small but packed with book shelves filled with, you got it, books.
As we walk through the aisles I read some of the titles. All of them are regular books from a variety of subjects. Nothing I’m particularly interested in at the moment, and no spell or skill books yet. In the back there is a counter with a door behind it and an older gentleman standing there. He is sitting on a stool and reading a book as we approach. “One thing good about owning a book store is that I get to read plenty” he says without moving. We come to a stop at the counter and a moment later the man looks up. Back on Earth I would put his age at somewhere around fifty, but here it could be much more.
His eyes crinkle at the corners when he catches sight of me and sees us all waiting for him. “Well you are polite. I’ll give you that. What do you want?”
“Hello. I assume you are Merl?” At his nod I continue. “I was told that I should come here if I wish to find skill and spell books for sale. At least any good ones.”
Shaking his head he responds. “That is Deloris’s department, but she won’t talk to you.” Curious I check him out and find that he is something called a ritualist. A mage of some sort then. If I’m right then he
is probably some kind of enchanter for his profession and Deloris is a scribe or scholar. They would then be able create new spell and skill books. One of them would need to know the spell or they would need someone that does to assist.
“We were recommended to come here by Marcus from The Pony. He said I should look here if I wanted the best. Was he mistaken?”
Taking a good look at me and my companions, who are smiling back serenely, he leans back in his seat. “Well, if Marcus sent you then you can try talking to D in the back. I doubt she will believe you though, and you’ll need to convince her if you want to see what we have.” With that he waves to the door in the back wall.
We go through the door into an office. The only furniture is a desk strewn with papers and a chair. Behind the desk is an older beastkin woman wearing a collar like all the other non-human residents I’ve seen in the city. Her age looks about the same as Merl. She has little nubs for horns poking out of her graying hair and ears that remind me of a dear. We approach and she stands and gives us a hard look. “What do you want?”
A Mage Rising: (The Chronicles of Herst 2: A LitRPG Saga) Page 28
