Ether saw the faint outline of glowing petals of all shapes and sizes fading away as his feet hit the ground. “There you are!” Sharlette called from somewhere to his right. “Was wondering when you’d finally show up.”

“I only woke up a few minutes ago!” he objected as he turned to face her. She’d tied her hair back into a short ponytail, and seemed to have upgraded her armor, the black leather newly polished and marked with silver thread in intricate patterns. A new knife hung at her belt, too, though it seemed to simply be a fancier carving knife. “Where’d you get the new gear?” He asked curiously.

“All over the place. The crafters around here do good work!” She pulled out her new knife and laid it flat across her palms. “Isn’t it great! It’s got an enchantment on it! I mean… it’s a pretty minor one, and it’s nothing too flashy, but still!”

Ether had to admit, the shimmering design on the blade was mesmerizing. “You managed to get enchanted gear?” He asked, surprised. “Shouldn’t that be worth hundreds of gold?”

She tossed him a pouch full of coins with a smirk. “I stuck around a bit longer than you guys did the other day, and figured there might be a bounty available for Demons. Took a bit of running around, but it turns out I was right - even a low level one was worth 1000 gold! Here’s your cut.”

333 gold added to inventory.

376 gold is your new total. Don’t spend it all in one place!

Or do, it’s your money.

It was oddly comforting to see the menu return to its usual snarky behavior. “Any idea where I could get a better weapon?” he asked as they strode over to a nearby bench.

“The smith that made my knife takes commissions for all kinds of work,” the redhead offered. “We could go ask them about that while we wait for Perseus. Or better yet, we could just… not wait for Perseus.”

Ether scoffed. “What, and miss out on the chance to annoy him for days at a time? Never!”

Shar smiled at that. “You make a good point, I guess… but can we pretend we already left? Just send him a message saying we’re already out of the valley?”

“The starter kits all come with a map,” Ether said, shaking his head. “I’m almost positive he knows how to use it to find party members.”

Shar led him around a corner, presumably towards the smith she’d mentioned. “Damn. Ah well. Guess I’ll find some other way to get under his skin, then.”

Ether nodded approvingly. “Best way to get on his good side is to carefully get on his bad side,” he said with a smirk.

“I figured, seeing how the two of you act. Ah, here’s Gio’s stall!” She suddenly dashed forwards, skidding to a halt in front of a stall with an anvil painted on its sign. The messy stall looked practically abandoned to Ether, but Sharlette must’ve noticed something he didn’t because she raised her voice and began to call out to the shop owner. “Gio! Giovanni, wake up! It’s way too late for you to be lazing about! Did you stay up late again?”

A dazed looking fellow with arms far too muscular to fit his thin frame suddenly sprang up from underneath the stall, smacking his head on it in the process. “I’m -gah! I’m up, Shar, no need to be so noisy.”

Giovanni

Member of Elysium

Native Human

Level 1 Smith

While levels may assist crafters in developing their skills,

There is no replacement for ingenuity and hard work.

Giovanni is living proof of that.

The dark haired young man flushed as Shar scowled at him.

“Fine! I admit it. I had an idea for a new sort of alloy that’s gonna be a big hit, so I... may have stayed up late messing with the ratios and making prototypes. But you’ll see, this one’s gonna put my name in the history books for sure!” He smiled brightly as he showed her a short sword with a peculiar tint to it, covered with faintly glowing blue lines. It looked like a gladius to Ether, but the menu seemed to disagree.

Spatha of Channeling

Allows greater mana conductivity, enhancing further enchantments placed on the weapon.

Also allows the weapon to function as a wand or staff for the purpose of casting spells.

“That’s amazing!” Ether said excitedly. “Any of those prototypes you mentioned happen to be a glaive? I’m planning on specializing in a mix of magic and melee, and could use an upgrade.”

Giovanni seemed to jump slightly, looking towards Ether as if he’d only just realized he was here. The reason why became obvious as the young man brushed his hair out of his face and took out a pair of battered glasses, carefully polishing them with a nearby rag before putting them on.

“Sorry,” he said nervously. “Both for not seeing you, and because I haven’t made any polearms that use this yet. I do need to try that next though…” He frowned, glancing back and forth between Shar and Ether. “Well, any friend of Shar’s is a friend of mine. Tell you what, if you pay half in advance, I’ll give you a discount! Only 180 gold total instead of 200. Deal?”

Ether eagerly shook the man’s extended hand. “Deal. Here, 90 up front, right?”

Giovanni nodded quickly. “I’ve got some pieces I’m almost done with that would work perfectly for this, so I can have it done by the end of the day! Just point to which one looks best to you, and I’ll get right on it!”

The next 15 minutes or so were spent looking through the unfinished blades that the creative young smith had been working on - some of which looked entirely impractical, such as a series of swords that were arranged like the blades of a windmill. Eventually, Ether decided on a slightly curved blade that vaguely reminded him of a scimitar. It would make his new weapon technically more of a naginata than a glaive, but he was planning to do more slicing than stabbing in the first place.

“Well, well, well!” A familiar voice called out from behind the pair as they finished their chat with the smith. “If it isn’t my wayward party! Mind telling me why we’re wasting time not questing right now?” Perseus smirked as he strode up to them, freezing as he saw where they were standing.

“Wasting time?!” Shar bristled. “You’re the one who’s running late! And I’ll have you know that while you were sleeping, I went to the trouble of getting us paid properly for that last fight and used some of the funds to get some decent gear!”

Ether was at least half sure that Perseus hadn’t even heard her. As soon as he saw the shop, his eyes took on a familiar greedy gleam. “Well, now…” he breathed out reverently. “I take it back - you guys definitely have your priorities straight! This is one hell of a shop for such a low level zone - is that frickin orichalcum?!” He brushed past her to point at a bar of what Ether was sure must be bronze.

“That’s right!” Giovanni puffed out his chest as he gestured towards the precious metal. “I can only get a little bit at a time, but I’ve got some guildmates working on finding a proper supply of the stuff! I only use a little here and there, mostly for the really high end stuff, but I can say with absolute certainty that it’s well worth it!”

Perseus narrowed his eyes. “How much would a pure orichalcum dagger cost me?” he asked with a sly smile.

Gio laughed.

“I get why you think you’d want that, but trust me, you don’t,” the smith said with a shake of his head. “Not only would it cost you thousands of gold, a knife like that would be useless! Orichalcum is great for holding enchantments, but it’s too soft to use for a blade. It’s practically the same as gold, in that regard.”

Perseus smirked. “I know - I just wanted to see what kind of answer you’d give. You can tell a lot about a smith based on how much they tell their customers. Met a guy once who tried to sell me a gold sword with no enchantments, insisting it was a holy relic.”

The oddly thin young smith scowled. “I can’t stand smiths like that,” he said bitterly. “They give us all a bad name! Our job is to make things that keep people alive when they come up against horrifying monsters, not to try and rob them! I get that everyone wants to get rich quick, but really!” He seemed on the verge of breaking into a full fledged rant when he remembered that Perseus was a customer, and froze. He cleared his throat and gestured towards the bar again.

“Yes, well… I can use a bit to enchant a preexisting dagger, to be sure, or make an alloy with a small amount of the metal blended into it, if you want to try something I’ve been working on…”

The slim adventurer nodded, staring intensely at the various options available. “I don’t really have enough to afford -”

He stopped abruptly as Shar threw a bag of coins at the back of his head, grabbing his attention. He glared at the redhead for a full 30 seconds before snapping at her.”Well?”

“Think fast,” she deadpanned.

“You’re supposed to say that before throwing something,” Perseus growled . His irritation vanished as he picked up the pouch. “Where the hell did you get that much money in so little time?!” he blurted out in astonishment. “Did you stay up all night questing?”

Something flickered in the redhead’s eyes, and she grimaced. She seemed even more irritated as she snapped back at the obnoxious [Rogue]. “Whoops! Now how did I forget that? Might’ve had something to do with you ignoring me as soon as you showed up. You know, 30 seconds ago? Back when I was trying to tell you how we made this much money?”

Perseus paused, frowning as he realized what had just happened. “Shit,” he grumbled. “Well, that’s one for your side, I guess. Is this for me?”

“If you can stop being deliberately abrasive for 5 whole minutes, sure,” the [Battle Chef] said. Seeing that she looked confused, Ether jumped in to explain. “He keeps score,” the adventurer whispered to her. “‘One for your side’ is his way of admitting that he lost.”

“Just because she won doesn’t mean I lost!” the [Rogue] shot back grumpily as he perused the knives available.

“Sure,” the other two said in unison.

“We definitely believe you,” The redhead continued, keeping her expression carefully neutral.

“No reason not to,” the party leader added. “You’re always so honest and sincere, after all.”

“I hate you both,” the ‘tired’ dagger wielder muttered under his breath. Even so, he was smiling.

He forced his wandering mind back to the matter at hand, pointing to a dagger his menu identified as ‘Steel Dagger of Freezing’ as he glanced at the young smith. “I’ll give you 300 for two of these.”

Gio grinned. “I’ve only got one on hand, but I can make a second one no later than tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks, Giovanni,” Perseus said as he passed the man the vast majority of his gold. “See you then. Come on, guys, let's take a few local quests while we wait.”

The bickering trio set off for their next adventure, leaving behind the busy street in mere moments as they broke into a jog. They had places to be, after all, and [Running] wasn't going to level itself.