<>(Zack)<>

"I don't promise," I tell Bryce. "That it's going to taste good, but I promise it'll fill your stomach."

He laughs, then starts digging in to the breakfast of eggs, bread, and some fruit. That's all I've really been eating, though I'd rather have meat in it. But I'm saving the meat for after training, as usual.

It's more expensive.

And since we're not training today, as we just ate breakfast at lunchtime and need to go shopping to get him clothes, equipment, and other supplies, we probably won't eat meat at all today.

Bryce and I do some exercising after breakfast, then make our way to the markets. My first stop is the shop with armor and clothes, and the man there stares at us horror clear on his face.

"Dear Crystals," he breathes in annoyance. "There are two!"

I laugh as we approach his counter, then tell him to bring out the clothes in Bryce's size. He does so reluctantly, and we start looking through them, picking out three pairs of underwear, three pairs of pants, three tunics, a night shirt, some light pants to sleep in, and a jacket.

"One silver," I say before he can tell us our price.

"That's not-"

"One silver," I state firmly.

"It costs-"

"I am not," I say. "Paying you seven and three-quarters of a silver. We're paying a silver."

"No," he says firmly.

"Why not?" Bryce asks. "Do you want me to go around in cheap clothes that'll let me freeze to death? Clothes that'll fall apart because they're made of a material that can't stand up to the wear of battles?"

"Seven-fifty."

"A silver," I repeat.

"Seven-fifty."

"A silver," Bryce says.

"Seven-fifty!"

"A silver!" Bryce and I say together.

We haggle him down to two silver, eighteen copper, then Bryce stares at the clothes, thinking.

"How do you get it into your Inventory?" He asks.

"Normally," the clerk glares at me. "You think 'Inventory', and it grants you the list of the items in your Inventory. If you're holding an item of yours, you can also send it in through that menu. Its size is limited based on your Total Level, increasing a little bit every 25 Total Levels."

Really? I've never had a hud for my Inventory. I can just sense it and everything within.

Bryce focuses for a moment, then his clothes shimmer and glow for a moment before vanishing.

That's… not at all how mine works. My Inventory, everything just…

Oh, crap.

I'm not using an Inventory, am I?

Inventory.

A blank menu appears in my vision.

Whelp.

Oops.

With Bryce's new clothes purchased and safely tucked into his Inventory, we pick out some boots for him that match mine, as well as a matching set of equipment, then return to the counter, the clerk looking determined to not sell us the items for any less than the eight and a half silver they come to.

He stands no chance against us. Two silver, twenty-three copper is what we pay, and not a copper more.

From there, we leave and make our way to the smith who sold me my sword and knife, and he gives us an amused look when we walk in.

"One young Dark Knight was amusing enough," he tells me. "Two of you will make things interesting. Hello, Bryce."

"Hello!" Bryce says cheerfully. "Zack said we're coming here to get a sword and knife for me."

"Do you have more like mine?" I ask. "Same budget."

The smith laughs, then makes his way into the back. After about six minutes, he returns to the front carrying a sword and knife similar to mine, with the same price as mine were. We talk him down from twenty-three silver to only nine, for two less than I bought my own for.

I'm a bit jealous of Bryce for getting his stuff for cheaper, but then, I was haggling alone when I tried for mine.

"May I see your weapons?" The smith asks as I help Bryce equip his, since they won't fit into his Inventory.

He could probably get his knife in, but we don't really care, since his sword won't go in.

"Sure," I hand mine over, then return to helping Bryce. Once we finish, I look to the smith. "What's up?"

"You need a whetstone," he tells me. "You haven't been taking care of your blades at all. If you leave them with me today, I'll mend the blades for a silver drop them off at your home on my way in tomorrow. If you want, I'll also sell you a whetstone for fifty copper each and show you how to properly sharpen the blades.

"And," he holds up a hand to interrupt my attempt at haggling his prices. "I'm letting you know that I'm already giving you a discount on these far below what I would normally do. A simple whetstone is fifty copper. The one I'm offering is a quality whetstone valued at five silver."

That's a discount of ninety percent.

"And," he continues before I can mention his service price. "The service for mending your sword would be seven silver, while the service for you knife would be three. You're getting the same discount for those as you are the whetstone."

"You seem a lot more reasonable," I say. "Than the old fart selling armors."

He laughs, shaking his head.

"I'm not putting as much effort," he admits. "Into haggling against you, Zack, because a good blade is essential to any blade-wielding Class, and I'm not going to let you two go unequipped. That doesn't mean I'll be giving you steep discounts on everything, but I'll go a bit lower than normal for you. Well, the two of you."

He indicates Bryce with a nod, and I decide I like him even more. He's being completely honest with us. He wants to make sure we're equipped, and while he won't be stupid with his discounts, he'll at least make sure we can make it through.

By teaching us how to properly sharpen our swords and care for them, he'll be allowing us to survive better for cheaper, making sure we're better-prepared against the Monsters.

"Alright," I tell him. "You have a deal."

He nods, and I hand him two silver. He hands each of us a whetstone, then asks if we'd like to learn now how to properly sharpen a blade. We confirm without hesitation, so he closes up shop and leads us through the back and the forge into the yard.

Out there, he removes three knives and three swords from his Inventory, and I notice the same shift as when Bryce did it, only this time, they glow before appearing.

Definite oops.

The smith – Jackson – sits us down at a table, informing us that we want as much natural light as possible when sharpening a blade, then shows us how to use the whetstones to hone the edge back to sharpness, removing nicks as we do.

One of the key points, he tells us, is to keep the blade at the same angle against the whetstone when we sharpen, as well as to perform the same number of strokes on each side of each edge, to keep it consistent and give the blade as good of an edge as we can.

For an hour and a half, Jackson has us practice, and by the end of it, my arms are tired and sore. I'm also confident that he planned on this happening at some point, as he had more than a dozen basic swords and knives in his Inventory, each of which had some damage that needed mending.

What smith and merchant would waste Inventory space with those when he could use it for things that would actually benefit him in some form?

"Actually," he says when I ask him about holding those in his Inventory. "The Inventory doesn't work quite like that. Many Subclasses actually grant an extra form of an Inventory called 'Storage', which allows you to store things relating to that Subclass, and it increases a little in size every Level of the Subclass. Having Certified Assessor grants a sort of sub-inventory space as well.

"As a Blacksmith," he informs us."I'm able to store tools for the trade in my Blacksmith Storage, as well as ingots, ores, and other raw materials used in my craft. It's part of why most Adventurers who explore out of the Cities for long periods of time make sure to get the Chef Subclass – it allows them to free up some of their Inventory by putting some or all of their cooking instruments and ingredients in their Chef Storage.

"Back to your question," he continues. "I have Level 6 Certified Assessor, granting me the Merchant Storage. I've been storing those for about two weeks after having them brought here from deep within our territory, just in case you didn't know how to care for your blade."

He picks up the last knife I sharpened and examines the blade, then stabs it into the table we were working on.

"This only works," he tells us. "If it's small nicks or for the blade being dulled."

He pulls out another knife, stabbing it into the table. This one has some more damage on it, with larger nicks as well.

"These nicks," he indicates a few of them. "Are too much for a whetstone to smooth out and would need repaired. If your blade ever gets like this, and you're able to just stop, do so then and return to town to have me repair it. If you aren't around here, then go to the nearest town and have their smith repair the blades.

"Of course," he continues. "Weapons only last so long as well, which means that even with repairs, they'll eventually break. That's why it's always good to have a backup weapon. As Dark Knights, the need is less-so, but it's still a good idea.

"That said," he says. "I don't expect you to get a backup now, as the swords and knives I gave you two are quality. It's likely when you neared the Wrath of Darkness that you damaged your sword and knife so much, especially with the acidity of the Slimes' ooze."

"I noticed," I say. "That the blood doesn't slide off as much as it used to, will that be a problem?"

"Not if you clean your blade properly," he shakes his head. "And don't let it sit dirty whenever it does start to fade, as that'll help the fading enchantment last longer. However, when I mend your blades, I'll be reapplying the treatment that protects them."

"I thought that had to be done during the forging?"

"It can be done during repairs as well," he nods. "However, only buy the original smith or a Master Blacksmith – that is, a Blacksmith who has reached Blacksmith Level 25, the maximum. Luckily for you, I'm both, so reapplying it won't be a problem."

"What happens if someone else does it?" I ask. "Someone who isn't a Master Blacksmith?"

"It'll ruin the weapon," he answers. "Weakening its integrity and increasing the odds it'll damage or break."

So any decent smith would never do it unless they were one of those two. That's good to know.

"Alright," I say. "Anything else we should know?"

"No," he answers. "Good luck, you two."

"Thanks," I say, then he shows us back into the shop. We're almost at the door when something registers in my head, so I turn to face the smith again. "You mentioned that you'd drop it by on your way in tomorrow – I thought no one lived near me?"

"I live about four blocks past you," he informs me. "I'm one of the only people left from having lived here before people began to move inwards. Maelnor was the City I arrived in, and I haven't moved from my temp quarters. Never saw a reason to, as they work just fine, even if they aren't 'quality'."

That, they do, and that, they aren't.

I nod, then Bryce and I leave, making our way to the general store to buy him a blanket, sewing kit, and us some food. As with the other places, we manage to get an even steeper discount than I managed on my own.

I think the lady here is like Jackson, though – she doesn't really see a point in actually resisting us, and does it just for fun. She wants to make sure we're alright, and so is happy to sell things to us heavily-discounted.

Once we finish shopping, we make our way back home, especially since our 'breakfast' was actually lunch.

Home at last, I start making dinner and the pumpkin pie, carving out the top of the pumpkin to scoop out its innards. I separate the guts from the seeds, tossing them in a skillet with a seasoning mix I bought while we were shopping.

Dinner completes just as I put the pie in the oven, so we sit down and enjoy our dinner, talking about what we'll do tomorrow for training.

After dinner, we enjoy the pie. It's not perfect, but it's my first attempt at it, and I'm going to learn from this mistake. It's not awful by any means, either, and we eat the entire thing.

Bryce and I clean up our dishes, then I show him where we can wash our clothes. We wash his new clothes and the clothes we wore today, heating the bath as we do. Once the bath water is ready and our clothes are out to dry, we climb into the bath and relax.

"So," Bryce says as we relax. "Do you like living here?"

"I do," I answer. "This place is a lot of fun, and I get to do a lot of things, kill a lot of things., and be as crazy as I want. And get to screw with people a lot, too. It's plenty of fun."

"Think I'll like it?" He asks.

"After last night and today?" I ask. "Fuck yeah, you will. You're a Dark Knight at the core, so you're definitely going to enjoy this place. Just wait until you can fight Goblins with me – they're so much fun.

"Oh!" I realize something, grinning at him. "With the two of us, we could totally fuck with the Goblins."

"That'll be fun," he grins at me. "Can you tell me about the different types of them?"

"Um," I think about it for a few seconds. "I actually don't really pay much attention. I know there are some differences between them, and some have short swords, knives, or clubs, but most of the ones I've actually fought were weak enough for me to kill with minimal issue, even in groups of two or three, and they've all been the weapon-wielding ones. So I've never bothered paying attention to the ones I don't go up against."

"Alright," he grins again. "We can learn about them together. The others can be off doing whatever it is, and I'm sure we'll be teased for studying and hunting so many Goblins, but it's our job to kill them, right?"

"Right," I nod.

"Then that's what we're going to do," he grins. "And the more we learn about them-"

"The easier it'll be to deal with them," I nod. "Oh! Right! I do know one thing! They have a weak spot right here," I touch my shoulder, in the spot near my neck where the one Goblin bled like crazy. "Stabbing there causes them to bleed a ton. And I mean a ton! That thing was squirting blood out like there was no tomorrow!"

Bryce laughs, and I start telling him about my trips into the forest and the Goblins I have fought, including how I got the necklace around my neck, and he listens intently.

I send a prayer up to Big Flame, thanking him for bringing me Bryce. I needed more than just a partner, I needed a friend, and he seems like he's going to be a good one.