Lorenzo’s Magic Shoppe was only a few hundred feet from the Mercenary Guild storefront. Somehow, Serenity had the feeling that location was deliberate; it seemed to be in the closest large building.

Large was definitely the right word for the store, too. While it didn’t come close to the size of a modern megastore, it was pretty close in size to a supermarket. Serenity was pretty sure he’d been in some Walgreens that were smaller. He’d seen stores like this as Vengeance, of course, but they weren’t the norm; the really big stores seemed to exist only in places that were frequented by enough wealthy people. Local stores tended to be small; many were even run out of peoples’ homes.

A few hundred feet from the Mercenaries’ Guild where people signed up for dungeon slots was exactly the sort of high-wealth high-traffic area that could support a large store. It had to do well normally; this was a tremendous capital investment. Serenity didn’t mean the store, either; that paled in comparison to the goods that had to be here.

There were two mannequins next to the entrance, one on either side. The one to the left was dressed in enchanted robes and positively dripping with enchanted jewelry of all types. The enchantments were all weak and Serenity was fairly confident the gems were paste, other than a few semiprecious stones, but it still made its point. Enchantments that were designed for someone who didn’t expect to be in melee were off to the left. He’d want to check them out, in case there was a specific enchantment he wanted, but Serenity generally preferred a less gaudy more practical approach.

The mannequin on the right promised exactly that: it was wearing a set of simple leather armor, also covered with a weak enchantment. The other gear was just as magical as the gear on the mage’s dummy, but the only jewels that could be seen were monster cores. Most of the equipment was made of leather, which made Serenity a little unhappy; some enchantments worked better in leather, but many held up better if they were in metal.

Serenity had a passing acquaintance with which was which, but only from experience. Where possible, he preferred to have a craftsman help choose which was better, and this display didn’t seem to indicate that there was a distinction. He could only hope that was simply because it was a display.

Serenity turned to the right and started looking through the magical goods. It was a collection of displays, like an old-time department store, not a modern outlet. That was pretty normal with magical goods; the actual stuff that was for sale was probably locked in the cabinets under each display or even in the back. He’d have to ask for it to be brought out to actually examine the enchantments; the one on display was the weakest variant offered.

More than half of the items were attribute enhancements. Serenity knew that was the first thing on most delvers’ lists; after all, a mage who couldn’t keep up wasn’t useful and neither was a warrior who couldn’t power his own enchantments, never mind someone who couldn’t even see the monsters. They varied from things that were buckled on over armor to jewelry that required a piercing, but one thing they all had in common was that Serenity didn’t need them. None of them would help his attributes at all.

The second most common item in the warrior section was sheaths. Everything from quick-release scabbards to elemental enchantments was available. Serenity was making his way through the displays looking for one that was suitable for a manablade when one of the clerks noticed him.

“Sir? Are you looking for something specific?” She was tall, young, blond, nicely dressed, and maybe twenty years old. She also had no aura control, but her aura was small and weak enough that Serenity didn’t pay attention beyond noting she was there until she spoke. Unlike the mercenary back at the Guild, she actually had a nametag that read Linda.

Linda was not a name Serenity would have expected in Takinat, but he hadn’t expected someone with such a Scandinavian appearance, either. Takinat seemed to be fairly cosmopolitan.

Serenity tapped his Crystal Hilt. “I’m looking for a sheath for a manablade. It’ll need a specialized draw, of course, and most enchantments aren’t compatible.”

“You were almost there,” Linda stated with a smile. “They’re over here in the specialty section. The selection isn’t as wide, I’m afraid, but I can go through them with you?”

He hadn’t been “almost there;” she was two rows away from him. He‘d have gotten there eventually, but it made him grumpy to be talked down to like that. Serenity grumbled to himself but followed her over to the display anyway.

The one good thing about the manablade sheaths was that they were all designed for a hilt like Serenity’s Crystal Hilt. The enchantments, unfortunately, weren’t as good a story. Half of the enchantments were either inappropriate to manablades, like the Fire enchantment that would increase the temperature of any metal it encountered while the manablade simply cut through it, or wouldn’t work on the Crystal Hilt because it was technically alive. The Light enchantment made Serenity laugh. Manablades naturally gave off light; a Darkness enchantment to hide them would be more appropriate.

It turned out that there was a Darkness enchantment in the drawer as well. Serenity was a little amused, but it really didn’t suit his fighting style.

Serenity took one look at the Curse enchantments and refused to even consider them. He wasn’t about to curse himself in order to possibly hamper his opponents, and that was definitely a possibility with the enchantments in that particular drawer.

What he needed wasn’t more damage and it wasn’t an elemental effect; he could do that by changing the mana and essence he ran through the blade, though he didn’t mention that to the clerk. He also didn’t need to lengthen or shorten the blade; that was entirely within his control. There was only one sheath effect in the entire bunch that Serenity liked. He found it a bit over halfway through but checked the rest anyway.

Solid Form.

One of the nice things about a manablade was how light it was; it was fast to move and very responsive. It could cut through almost anything, as long as the mana that ran through the blade could manage it. Unfortunately, all it could do was cut; there was no way to use it to parry. If it didn’t cut through whatever you were trying to parry in the fraction of a second they were in contact, it just kept going. Sure, it was probably damaged and weaker, but that didn’t stop it from hitting you.

A Solid Form enchantment, on the other hand, changed that. It made the manablade act far more like a normal weapon, with both the negatives and positives that came with that. The manablade would be slightly heavier, but not as heavy as a normal weapon; Serenity doubted he would notice the difference. It would be far slower to adapt to changes in the mana level, however, since it would be ‘frozen’ in the form it took immediately after being drawn. It would also take more mana (and probably more essence, though Serenity wouldn’t know that until he tested it).

On the other hand, Serenity could choose to use it or not each time he drew the blade. That made it worth getting. It was surprisingly cheap, as well, at only one Etherium; Serenity had the impression that most people with a manablade didn’t see the point in making it solid.

The next thing Serenity wanted was something for his ax, but the only thing that could really work there was a replacement for his Belt; a fast way to draw the ax would help and most other enchantments wouldn’t work properly on a spellbreaker weapon like the ax anyway. He ended up with a harness that would hold it securely on his back; with the quickdraw enchantment, it didn’t need to be normally accessible.

The sheathes he already had for his dagger set were fine, and there was little that could be done to improve on Tier One duplicating knives without risking breakage, anyway; they were specialized enough that he’d probably pass them on to someone else in time, but for now there was no need to buy anything for them. His Quick Belt, on the other hand, was nearing the end of its lifespan.

It wasn’t until he looked into the Quick Belt that he even realized he still had his old shield, repaired and at this point essentially useless because of its low Tier. The clerk offered to buy it at a premium, since they were completely out of low-Tier shields; that seemed reasonable to Serenity. It wasn’t that different from trading a car in on a new one; you might not get what it was worth, but it was a lot easier and the shield wasn’t worth enough to put up with the hassle.

The Quick Belt itself was replaced with a Minor Belt of Illusions; all it could really do is make his clothing look different, but it did it with a true illusion that was not immediately obvious without appropriate countermeasures. As far as Serenity was concerned, it meant he could fit in a little better; the T-shirt and jeans he was wearing kept attracting an annoying level of attention. This way he could wear them and not be so noticeable.

The normal use for a delver was to be able to travel without seeming so heavily armed and armored; it made people a bit more comfortable. That was desirable if you stayed in the better parts of town, which many delvers did. Many dungeons paid well. Admittedly, those delvers were often broke, living from delve to delve, but that wasn’t because they didn’t have significant amounts of pocket money when they weren’t broke.

Serenity considered a proper ranged weapon, but he didn’t think he’d ever used his Bow of Energy Arrows other than a few times in Earth dungeons; his allies tended to need someone who could stay between them and the enemy, so he didn’t end up needing to be backline often and when he did he had his throwing ax and daggers. Now that he had Death Magebolt and a selection of area spells, he couldn’t come up with a reason to consider any of the few ranged weapons Lorenzo’s Magic Shoppe had on display. None of them were high enough Tier to be worthwhile.

On the other hand, they were happy to buy the bow and arrows. Serenity was pretty sure he actually got a good deal on that one, unlike the shield where he had simply not gotten a bad one.

None of the boots were made for digitigrade feet, which left Serenity the choice of either getting boots only for his human form or not getting boots at all. Most of them were similar enchantments to his old Boots of Far Step, which was useful but not really amazing. It wasn’t until he expressed his dissatisfaction with the selection that the clerk mentioned “some odd footwraps” that they’d taken in in trade a few months before.

They were Footwraps of Air Glide and they were exactly what Serenity needed. They’d easily fit his feet in either form; in fact, they could be wrapped around the ankle under boots and still work as long as the boots weren’t magical. More importantly, they were a proper Tier Eight enchantment that would let him come close to actual flight as long as he was near the ground. A Tier Eight Air Glide was quite a bit faster than running.

Serenity suspected that he knew why they’d been turned in; they had a fairly notable mana cost, hadn’t been built with an internal power reservoir, and couldn’t be powered with monster cores. They were designed to be used either by a mage who needed to be a little bit off the ground for some reason or by a mobile fighter who devoted his mana pool to the footwraps. They’d probably been replaced when the person using them got something else to use his mana pool on.