by Sarah Lin
Bloodwraith smiled cheerfully at the man and watched him go, wondering when the man was going to ambush him. If he knew one thing in life, it was slimy bastards with ill intentions. The man's offer had rung entirely false and his warning was a bit too smug. No, Bloodwraith had just marked himself as an amateur in a city that was not kind to amateurs.
He'd deal with that soon enough. For now, he wanted more to eat.
The bread had tasted a lot better than he'd expected, rough as it was. Perhaps just his body insisting that he eat, but he'd take the pleasure this body offered while he kept it. Since he had a great deal to do, Bloodwraith ordered more bread and even a sausage. He had enough money that splurging on one item wouldn't meaningfully change his situation.
When Bloodwraith bit into the sausage and tasted the savory juices, he found himself taken aback. Was it this body, or had eating always been this pleasurable? He had tasted only dust for so long, he wasn't sure. Bloodwraith wolfed down the sausage eagerly and could have eaten a dozen more, but he held himself back.
More would be a waste. He needed to put himself in a position that he could order whatever he wanted in the future, and that meant using his money carefully. Perhaps later he would turn aside from the flesh and pursue raw power again, but for now, there was no harm in indulging.
As he finished his second loaf of bread, Bloodwraith gathered information from everyone willing to talk to him. A few had heard of the Master Lich, but in just ten years he seemed to have passed into legend. There was definitely no undead army sitting there for Bloodwraith to take back, though one old adventurer said that the Lich's crypt had become a dangerous place where only a few dared to go. Perhaps he would explore it later and see what he could gain.
Not many remembered Raigar, either, which surprised him. The people who had met him in the Forest of Beginnings had talked like Raigar was a legend, and he had certainly thought highly of himself, but his impact seemed to have been limited. The Master Lich and Raigar formed a closed loop, annihilating one another and letting life go on.
Why would the eldritch creatures behind the boxes want to create something like that? Was it some form of twisted art to them? A brief amusement in a lesser realm? Bloodwraith knew that it might be beyond him to ever understand, but he wanted to know what fathomless reasons they might have for all of this.
He might need to know, or he would be consumed in the same way.
When he emerged from the shop, Bloodwraith spotted someone following him. He stretched, yawned, and headed into a dark alleyway. Might as well get it over with.
Soon after he entered, he spotted the man coming after him over one shoulder. After pretending not to see for a while longer, getting into a darker area without windows, Bloodwraith turned back and let himself notice this time. The man immediately hid his knife in his sleeve and smiled broadly as he approached.
"Hello, friend! I thought I might suggest a f-"
Bloodwraith punched him in the throat.
He had expected to need to follow up his blow with more, but to his surprise the man's neck crumpled. Though he slid his arm from his sleeve, the pain made him too weak to attack effectively. It was a simple matter to knock him to the ground and pound on him until the box said he was dead.
[Victory! You received 92 EXP, an Iron Dagger, and 11 coppers.]
Bloodwraith grunted in satisfaction as he collected the dagger and money. His meal had nearly paid for itself - he should get mugged more often.
Since he wasn't sure exactly how lawless Cresthaven actually was, Bloodwraith dragged the body into a pile of refuse and used the man's shirt to clean up the blood. Perhaps no one would care about a corpse lying in an alley, but in case the guards still prosecuted murder, better to be careful. Bloodwraith left the alley in a good mood - he'd have whistled, if he knew how to whistle.
Eventually he noticed something unusual: there were certain streets that Level 0 people rarely entered. Logically, those must cater mostly to adventurers, which could easily create an environment the weak preferred to avoid. Focusing on these, he eventually found a street with a wide variety of merchants for adventurers, including the equipment he needed.
But which shop to enter? One of the largest stores was doing brisk business, but almost entirely among low level adventurers. Bloodwraith dismissed that one out of hand. There was a dingy storefront with a sign too battered to be read that he would have ignored, if not for the fact that only high leveled adventurers entered it. When he got close he saw all the prices were listed in gold pieces and moved away.
Then he had made no progress... or perhaps he had. Bloodwraith let his eyes unfocus a bit, not looking at anyone in particular, just seeing the crowds of people and their attached numbers. Maybe something would come to him.
Slowly, he reached a realization: one store in particular had an unusually large range of levels moving through it. If it could provide value to a wide swath of adventurers, perhaps it was a good place for him to start as well. Bloodwraith stepped inside and heard a bell ring.
Though there was a small front area with weapons and armor on display, the majority of the room was a smithy. The smith was a burly man with several children as assistants. When the bell rang, he glanced up and nodded, then went back to his work hammering a sword. A rather confident man, apparently.
[Name: Haral
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Alignment: Good
Level: 5
Reputation: 13/1000 (Unknown)
Affection: 25/100 (Neutral)
SPECIAL NOTE: High Smithing and Appraisal skills.]
Assuming the boxes reflected more than just his impressions, it seemed that this smith was a former warrior. That matched the scars on his forearms and chest. It didn't seem he'd taken any great injury that had ended his career, so he must have been good at it. According to the box, he was good at his new profession as well.
"What do you need?" the smith spoke without looking up from his work again.
"I'd like to replace my current equipment, but I'm not sure..."
"Fine. How much do you have?"
Answering that question would be a huge negotiation weakness. Bloodwraith considered refusing to answer, but realized that might make things awkward. "Nearly one gold piece."
At that, Haral glanced up at him again, this time looking over his armor and sword. He grunted and went back to his work. "I can give you four silvers for your current equipment. That should get you closer, and you can find replacements here."
"Four silvers?" Bloodwraith pulled his sword from his back, realized that it would be foolish to provoke the man, and changed his threat into holding the greatsword with both hands to show it. "This is a quality weapon made of a huge amount of iron. It alone should be worth more than four!"
Haral sighed and spent a while just working, apparently ignoring him. Just when Bloodwraith was about to explode in anger, the smith used tongs to move the blade into a bucket of water, then approached. He wiped his hands on his apron and spoke wearily, as if he had done this many times before.
"Look, adventurer, you have to understand how this city works. There are a lot of you, and most of you bring your own weapons. Now that I look at it, this greatsword is a little better than most, but what do you want me to do? Stock every single weapon I'm ever sold in the hope that someone buys it? No, most of the equipment I'm buying for the raw materials."
As much as it inconvenienced him, Bloodwraith had to admit there was logic in that. "Fine. Then let's negotiate, starting with how much you'd charge for decent equipment under a gold piece."
"You're wanting full armor, I'd imagine? Let's start with something like this." Haral gestured toward a heavy leather breastplate displayed on one of the walls. "Something like this will cost you 35 silvers. If you buy the accompanying pieces with it, I'll give you a discount on those..."
While the smith went on about the armor, Bloodwraith tucked away the numbers while examining the armor more carefully.
; [Quality Leather Armor
Armor: 5
Durability: 50/50
Rarity: Common]
What did the boxes mean by "armor," precisely? It clearly must be a rating, similar to the levels displayed for adventurers, but what did it actually measure? How well it could hold up to an attack? If so, what kind of attack? And it would do him no good at all if someone struck somewhere else - did the mysterious numbers account for that?
Focusing on the word summoned another box that said that "Armor" referred to the "Overall defensive strength of the piece of equipment" - which was not nearly as much information as he wanted. But fine, he would pay some attention to the numbers while making the decision based on common sense.
He and the smith negotiated prices, not playing around and soon getting to fair numbers. All his old equipment would be worth six silvers - the peasant clothing he'd started with being worth nothing at all. That left him with 176 silvers to work with. A full set of armor would cost 54 silvers, which left him with plenty for a weapon.
Yet when he examined the weapons, he found his choice less obvious there. The shop had only two greatswords: an iron one that was only slightly better than his current weapon, and one of steel that cost over a gold piece on its own. Frustrating, but within his budget. Except...
"Earlier," Bloodwraith said slowly, "you said that most of the equipment you bought was for materials. What about the rest?"
"Sometimes I get something that I think might be worth something to somebody else." Haral moved toward a side door, unlocked it, and gestured for him to follow. "It's hard to move equipment like this, but there's a tidy profit in it. Take a look in here and see if anything catches your eye. Your sword will probably go in here, once you sell it."
The side room was small, but utterly filled with random equipment. Much of it was in bad repair, but Bloodwraith could sense mana in the air. All of this equipment must have been a significant investment on the smith's part... but it must pay off, in the end. This was most likely the reason so many different adventurers visited his shop.
"Take your time and tell me if you like the look of anything. I tagged it all with prices so I can keep working." With that, he left him and returned to the forge. Given that Bloodwraith had given up all his equipment, there likely wasn't a major threat. The smith actually had a "Might" rating almost equal to his - increased by both his fighting and his job, no doubt.
But that didn't matter. He needed to focus on all the junk and see if any of it could be worth his time.
Bloodwraith quickly grew frustrated trying to look through all of it, even with boxes to evaluate everything for him. How much of being an adventurer was just managing inventory? But he swallowed his frustration and decided to look more carefully, bending the boxes to his will.
None of the equipment in the room was declared to be "Common" - most was "Uncommon." There were a few "Very Uncommon" items, and his eyes lit up when he spotted an amulet that was declared "Rare" - but the amulet apparently only improved archery skills. Useless.
Focusing only on Very Uncommon equipment reduced his options significantly. There was a ring that increased Might directly, which struck him as very appealing - he would need many of those in the future - but it cost a gold piece on its own and his core equipment was more important.
He almost missed it, but his eyes fell on a sword leaning in the corner. It was thinner than his greatsword, but glinted dark green. Though nothing like a staff or wand, he could feel that it was suited to mana in a way that few other brute weapons were. Perhaps...
[Lodestone Greatsword
Base Damage: 16-19
Durability: 7/100
Mana Capacity: 0/6
Rarity: Very Uncommon]
Fascinating. Not only did it have more potential than his current weapon, the core strength of it was superior, assuming that he interpreted the numbers correctly. Usually higher meant better - the box gods were not particularly subtle in that regard. It cost just under a full gold to purchase as well, which made it seem like the perfect choice, except for how damaged the blade had been.
Still, Bloodwraith didn't want to ignore this. He took it out of the room and showed it to the smith, whose eyebrows rose slightly. "I'll sell it to you, if you want it. But you must see, in that condition it won't last long."
"Can't you repair it? Most of the other items in the room were repaired."
"Because I can do it easily and restore the value of the item. But a weapon like that... I'll have to get a mage involved, and though I have a trade deal with a woman down the street, that's not cheap. Gamble that might never pay off. Wasn't sure about buying the thing in the first place, to be honest."
"Well, I want it now, surely it's worth it?"
"If you can pay the repair costs." Haral looked over the sword thoughtfully, shaking his head at the chipped and dull edges. "63 silvers for the repair, 79 for the blade itself... 142 silvers is more than you have. Well, I'll keep the thing around. Nobody else is likely to buy it."
"Wait! I... have some more."
The smith sighed and rolled his eyes, as if this had happened before. But Bloodwraith was more concerned about the overall price... would he really spend the majority of all the money he had earned on a single weapon? But then again... was it better to buy slightly better equipment overall, or a single piece with more value? Given how little the resale value of such equipment was, he decided to make the purchase.
Since the numbers didn't add up, what followed was a vicious round of negotiation. Bloodwraith had to give up getting new arm and leg armor, but he kept the breastplate and helm, which would keep the important parts of this squishy body safe. More importantly, he would get the new sword back in perfect condition and he could keep his current weapon until he picked it up.
"Weapon like this, it will take at least seven days. Come to think of it... you'd better come back in a tenday, just to be sure. You can stop by earlier if you want, but if I see you more than once a day, I'll start greeting you with my hammer. Understand?"
"Ten days? How can it take that long to repair a sword?"
"I have orders other than yours!" The smith huffed and set the sword down on a side table. "Be glad I decided to take it on at all. Come back in ten days."
So Bloodwraith left the equipment shop with less than a silver to his name. Other than slightly better armor, he wasn't much better equipped than when he'd entered. But when he thought about the lodestone greatsword, he felt satisfied with himself.
At least, until he went to an inn and discovered that a single night cost more than a silver piece.
Sighing, Bloodwraith realized that he would have no choice but to meet up with the group he'd met. They had urged him - well, Danniah had urged him - to come with them to the Adventurers Guild, and mentioned that they had accommodations for registered adventurers. It had struck him as obnoxious at the time, since he would be surrounded by filthy, impoverished adventurers.
Now he was one of them. Bloodwraith headed toward the Guild.
Chapter 7
Finding the Adventurers Guild wasn't difficult: there were even more of the filthy adventurers wandering around than normal. It seemed that the entire city of Cresthaven was governed by a single guild. Bloodwraith wasn't sure if that was normal or not because he had always stayed away from such places.
According to rumors he heard from other adventurers on the way, the Guild was one of the only locations in the city that wasn't under Daek the Knife's control. Apparently that was largely because it remained neutral, however. If it ever tried to take a stand on political matters or expand beyond simple assignments, there would be serious conflict with underworld organizations.
The building itself was an imposing thing, half castle and half mansion. On top of the foundation of solid stone rose a grand wooden layer with a large window that let him see a drinking hall within, filled with armed adventurers. Unusual towers and other structures sprouted from that, a mismatched set of different windows
and construction styles that somehow blended into an imposing wall.
Bloodwraith looked over it, nodding to himself. This was the building to burn down for EXP.
He entered to find the expected mix of different types milling about, but the Guild was more orderly than expected. The drinking hall was only one side of the building, while the rest more closely resembled an office. Adventurers quietly spoke to the staff there, took information down from assignments listed on the walls, and did other simple tasks.
The reason everything was so calm became clearer when Bloodwraith realized that all the figures wearing red headbands were guards. Each wore different clothing and clearly came from another profession, but all were at least Level 10. Now that he looked more carefully, Bloodwraith saw a few 14s and even a 15.
Unsure where to go first, he stood awkwardly in the door for a time. Before the pause could extend for too long, he heard a cheerful shout. "Heyyy! Raigarrr!"
Looking into the drinking hall, he saw Danniah leaping up and waving so that she could be seen over the heads of the others. The four of them were seated there and now stood up to approach - well, all except for Rhil'lahan, who stayed and drank with a cold expression.
He stepped in further to meet them. While Herena and Khassfhit weren't beaming as much as Danniah, they had at least come to greet him. For some reason his body smiled upon seeing them - another foolish adventurer instinct, he supposed. At least it kept him from having to fake the smile.
"I'm glad you came!" Danniah looked strange without her huge shield, though she was still barrel-shaped in her armor. "Are you going to register officially?"
"You'd better," Herena told him. "Without a registration, an adventurer is just a thug. And while public order has degraded in Cresthaven these days, you shouldn't push your luck."
"If you want to register, you can do it right over there!"
They directed him to the appropriate table, where an overworked woman was sorting through paperwork. She looked up at him wearily and nodded. "I heard you. New registration?"
