by Max Jager
While about ninety percent of the people there were elves, there were other races here as well. A few dwarves standing about three feet tall could be seen walking through the crowds, and a few fairies standing about six inches tall could be seen flying over the heads of the other people in the building. There was also some creatures that looked to be a mix between animal and human but those seemed to be rare amongst the crowds.
"Hey guys, where's Zanath?" Estellese said as she joined the others. She had been waiting for them at the entrance.
"Sleeping, apparently." Mendelen replied. "Which is good, I was a bit worried about him."
"Ah, alright. Well let's go see what we can sell and what we can find in here." Estellese said as she lead the way into the giant store. They went from one store to another, first selling everything they needed to sell while window shopping, before doing any real shopping.
Mendelen sold the 6 iron ingots, 5 small gold nuggets, two palm-sized rubies, the three extra rusty iron swords, plus he also sold his own two and Kaden's swords as well. He sold the two marble sized diamonds, the goldball sized ruby, and the four marble-sized topaz gems. Mendelen threw away his makeshift club and the bone he had taken from the skeletons, and he got the value of the four small bags of coins.
The end total was 17,600 worth of elven currency, which was these crystal shards about the size of a dollar. They had to ask how this currency system worked and what the different colors meant. The currency here was these magic crystals that had the ability to combine and separate at the command of the person holding them. It was like being able to take a ten dollar bill, and pull it apart into a five and five ones any time you wanted. Or taking a bunch of spare change and smushing it together to make dollars of equal value. It made carrying this money so simplistic. It was possible, using basic magic anyone can use, to tell how many crystals you had merged together so you know how much money you are carrying. The crystal that you held onto also seemed to grow ever so slightly in size the more other crystals you merged into it. It would seem this was the main and only currency for Elves, Fairies, Dwarves, and many other races.
They pulled the one crystal with all their money apart into four, each containing 4,400 crystals merged together. One for each of them. Mendelen put Zanath's crystal in his bag for later, then handed Kaden and Estellese their own. "Let's go gear up and get everything we need to tackle these demons." Mendelen said. It was so nice to have this long period of peace and safety, after everything they had been through being able to just sit back and relax, do some shopping, and not worry about dying was like a vacation. But he knew that would be coming to an end soon.
When Kaden and Estellese both almost cheered out "Yes!" They set off to shop. Their first stop was at a blacksmith who sold weapons and armor, as soon as they walked in Kaden's eyes went wide "Dibs on the scythe!" He called out, pointing to this obscenely huge scythe hanging from the wall in the back. He ran over to it only to find that the price tag on it was more than triple the funds he had. He frowned a little and sighed.
"Don't worry Kaden. A scythe that big would be pretty impractical anyways." Mendelen laughed.
"Says you." Kaden countered. "I'll prove you wrong someday."
"I'll be interested to see it." Mendelen replied. He looked around the store a little, then eventually went straight to the shop owner to get what he needed faster. "I need a kite shield, a sword, some armor that can protect me while being lightweight and mobile, and I'd like a chain hook. I have 4,000 crystals to spend. What do you recommend?" He asked.
The shop owner listened, then stepped out from behind the counter to start showing him the items he requested. "You will want light plate armor, it is in between full plate and chainmail for protection. With your funds the best you can afford would be a low-grade metal but you are wearing a steel chainmail chestpiece and a steel helmet. Steel is pretty expensive so if you are willing to trade me that, I can get you a full set of iron light plate armor and everything else you need in iron for 2,000 crystals. And" He started. "If I was you I would go to the enchanter across the store, she can enchant your armor to be lighter weight than the material really is to make it provide better mobility. That should cost an additional 2,000 if I remember her prices correctly, which takes up everything you intended to spend, but uses that money to the best effect."
Mendelen thought about it for a moment, and Kaden approached him. "You're not considering that right?" Kaden whispered. "He is a shopkeeper, he isn't going to help you get the best deal he is going to help you give him all your money."
Mendelen shook his head "He is a shop keeper, which means he knows what the best deals are. I trust his judgment, and so should you." He whispered back, then turned to the shopkeeper. "You built these things yourself right? If I pay an additional 50 crystals, can you add sections on the arms of the armor that I can attach my chain hook to? If you can do that we got a deal."
The man smiled and nodded. "Yes sir, I can easily do that for you. Both arms right?" He asked. When Mendelen nodded he took the armor off the shelf and grabbed the arm pieces. Then he grabbed some iron from behind the counter and his hands suddenly started to turn bright red. The iron melted in his hand and just like that he formed it like clay to make sections the chain hook could be clipped onto. When he noticed the shocked looks on their faces he laughed softly. "You are the humans everyone is talking about, right? I guess you have never seen a mage who uses the metal element. It helps a lot with blacksmithing, being able to bend and weave metal to my command." He said
"In our world, if we touched melted metal like that we would burn our hands off." Mendelen replied.
The man laughed "It is no different in this world. You can't see it, but I am controlling the metal and not letting it touch my hands. My control is like a paper thin glove protecting my hands from the metals." He said. Within seconds the attachments were complete and he handed everything to Mendelen. "Keep the extra fifty dollars. The attachments were free, and repairs will be free after the battle. It's my thanks for your assistance, I offer the same thing to the soldiers."
"Thank you very much sir, my name is Mendelen, hopefully I'll be able to return the favor within the next few weeks." Mendelen replied as he took the armor and weapons. Most of them were placed inside his minimize bag but they filled the bag quickly so he had to carry some of them.
Once Mendelen was finished Kaden approached the counter and bought two steel longswords. Estellese did not buy anything. As they left the store and headed towards the enchantment store Mendelen turned to Estellese. "You are not buying any armor or weapons?" He asked.
Estellese shrugged. "The axe is good enough for me, and I'd rather not be weighed down by armor. The way I see it, buying a new weapon would be a waste when I have a perfectly good one already. And heck, I don't bother using a weapon half the time anyways. Just look at the fight with those hybrid things for example, I dropped the axe and just punched the damn thing in the face. But spending my money on new spells on the other hand, that could make me far stronger because it is something to add to the arsenal I already have."
Mendelen nodded "That's a valid point, I hadn't thought of it that way." He said. They went into the enchanting store and he was able to buy the lightweight armor enchantment for 1,000 crystals. In addition to that he enchanted his chain hook to have a magically extendable and retractable chain for an additional 1,000 crystals. Leaving him with just 400 left. While here Kaden also had both of his swords enchanted, making them magically sharp enough to cut through most metals.
With that they went into the magic store and began looking around at spells. Everything here was a bit too pricy for Mendelen so he opted not to buy any magic at this time.
Estellese almost ran right over to the wall where the books of full elemental control were all lined up on the shelves. She remembered what Cora said, with each element you have full control over they grow weaker. So Estellese settled on limiting herself to just two full elements, and an arsenal of spells fro
m various elements. But which two? There was so many! Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Air, Nature, Wood which was a subelement of nature, lightning, metal, light, darkness, Aether: White magic, Aether: Dark magic, Aether: Summoning. And the mental sub-elements of Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Empathy. She stood there, staring at the options. Which combination would be best? Water and Lightning? Darkness and Light? Aether black and white? Metal and Earth? It was a difficult decision, she was struggling to decide. But she reached out and took the Fire and Earth books. A powerful offensive element, and a sturdy defensive one. It was at that time her signet ring let out a bright flash of light.
Suddenly, a ghost-like copy of herself stepped out of her own body. This ghostlike copy selected the books fire and water, reaching out and taking ghost-like copies of these books for herself. Then another copy of herself split off from her body and took Darkness and Light. And another, and another, and another, and another. All of them taking a different combination of spells. Then all of the ghosts suddenly looked like they got sucked back into Estellese's body and disappeared.
"The hell was that?!" Estellese shouted. She looked down at her signet ring, what looked like it had been the source of this odd event. The flat and blank part on the top of the ring was no longer blank. Now it showed a picture of a girl walking down a road, standing at a crossroads where the road forked in many directions. Very faintly, you could see copies of the girl in the background walking down each road.
"That would be your signet ring." A lady standing behind the counter chimed in. "Have you not seen one before? Yours must have just now become active. It chose a power for you, and now you can use it."
"What power did it choose?" Estellese asked.
"I wouldn't know." The woman answered. "Everyone's signet is unique to them. The picture on the ring usually has some sort of symbolism pertaining to what it does. Beyond that, to figure it out you'll just have to try using it at some point. Please not inside the store, don't want to accidentally blow something up."
Estellese purchased her fire and earth books, these would give her complete control over these two elements once she mastered them. Kaden then bought one spell, not a full element. It was an Aether: Black magic spell that let him throw a sharp pinwheel-like blade of energy. It was a rather advanced spell, but he hoped to learn it before the war. Kaden also bought a signet ring for himself. Once they left that store they stopped by a potions shop where Mendelen bought 10 potions for the team. And with that, they were geared up and ready for the war. Mendelen used his virtual keyboard to turn one of the doors to a restroom into a portal to his stash room and stored his new armor and weapons in there for now. With that they set off to resume training and preparing for the war.
Kaden returned to the Inn to find Zanath sleeping. He must have been asleep most of the day, and kadin didn't expect him to wake until morning at this rate. Thinking that that would be enough to get Zanath back into good health again Kaden opened the portal to his stash room in the doorway to their room in the Inn, and walked inside. A moment later he walked back out with the machine, Zanath's notes and books, and everything else that had disappeared. he put it all back where he found it then closed the portal to his stash and left the inn to go practice his new spell and train.
~~ Part 2: The Battlefield ~~
Three more weeks had passed, and Zanath had not only finished his machine but had taught the elves about guns, solar power and electricity, and taught them how to recreate his conversion devices. That way, if by some turn of bad luck he doesn't survive the battle they have everything they need to recreate his devices and close the rifts themselves.
Kaden looked out the window to see Adamus and Alicia addressing the army out in the center of the village. Almost all of the soldiers in the elven army now carried guns along with their primary weapon of a bow, jewel encrusted staff, or some melee weapon. The only ones who did not carry a primary weapon other than a gun were what appeared to be a new section of the army who carried rocket launchers. They were accompanied by elves with staves. Everyone had at least a pistol on them.
Estellese had not figured out her signet skill, and Kaden's had not yet activated. Zanath bought himself one but his also had not yet activated. Zanath, otherwise, saved all of his money and just kept his old sword. He took a rifle and a pistol that he built for himself, leaving his bow and arrows in his stash. Estellese had learned the bare basics of fire magic, Kaden had grown both stronger and faster but had not learned his spell. And Mendelen had also grown stronger and faster than before. Zanath, having spent most of his time teaching or working, did not physically become much faster or stronger than he had been. They were much more powerful than when they first arrived in this village.
"Are we all ready?" Mendelen asked the others. The air was tense, they all knew that the battle that awaited them would be their most dangerous one yet. For the first time ever they had time to prepare before the fight, but even at that everyone knew that if these demons were as tough as the elves said they might not make it out of this.
"Yeah" Everyone replied.
"Relax guys. We will be fine." Mendelen said softly. "Stick together, and watch each other's backs like we always do. We have an entire army on our side this time, with that plus the four of us keeping each other safe we can do this. If we can survive the werewolf attack alone we can survive a demon attack with an army by our side."
"Can we really trust the army to have our backs?" Kaden questioned.
"Of course we can." Estellese countered.
Kaden shook his head a bit. "Well I don't."
Mendelen turned to kadin "We have to, regardless of if you want to or not." He said then opened the door just in time to see Esyll standing outside. She was just about to knock. "Hello, can I help you?" He asked.
"Esyll, what brings you here?" Zanath asked.
"You know her?" Mendelen asked, stepping aside so he wouldn't get between them.
Zanath nodded "She's the head scientist, I've been working with her to build the machine." He answered, then turned to Esyll to see what she had to say.
"We need to go, quickly." Esyll stated. "Alicia says the demons caught wind of our plans, I don't know how but they know what we are doing. Needless to say they are really pissed off and are already hitting us with everything they got to try and stop us. The group guarding the portal are losing the outpost, fast."
"Let's go guys, hurry!" Mendelen called out as he slipped past Esyll and rushed outside to meet up with Adamus and the army. Adjusting his new suit of armor as he ran. Kaden and Estellese rushed out after him.
"What do you mean we?" Zanath asked.
"Me and the other scientists are coming too." Esyll stated. "Well a couple of them anyways. And Lillith is also tagging along, she may not be a scientist but she has interest in the sciences" She corrected.
"No, it was supposed to be just me." Zanath corrected. "The scientists are mostly non-combat civilians, it's too dangerous for you to come."
"You're a civilian, by our standards, and you're going." Esyll pointed out. "We understand the risks, we will be safe. We are scientists after all, we have our ways. Now let's go before we are late." She said as she turned and started walking down the hall.
"Please be careful. I really don't want anyone else putting themselves in danger." Zanath replied as he followed along.
The four Alphas joined up again with Adamus as he finished instructing the soldiers. He turned to the Alphas "We are moving out. Stick close to the scientist group, let the soldiers handle the combat. There will be guards assisting the scientists, so you should not need to worry about facing a demon alone. But this is war, there is no guarantees here and no telling what will happen. We can not promise your safety, and we hope you will do whatever you can to help." He stated.
Alicia was standing beside Adamus and seemed to be zoning out, but suddenly she snapped back to reality and turned to him. "Adamus we need to move." She interrupted. "I was watching the battlefield, they breached our defe
nses. The elves guarding the gate were taken by surprise by an attack on their flank from demons that must have come from another rift, the outpost was lost and only a few of the guards are still alive. They know we are coming and are resisting with everything they have."
