"What?"

The two women gave Thomas even weirder looks. Selena was the first to speak up, "You were looking at us funny."

She didn't know why but when Thomas had looked at her with his glowing eyes she felt... exposed. It was as if she couldn't hide any of her secrets from him. The feeling became even worse when she saw the not-so-subtle look of surprise on his face. What did he see? What did he know? She only knew that she felt extremely worried about what had happened and what might have changed. It's not that she wanted to lie to him, she was simply afraid that the truth would send him running far away from her.

Lexiana chimed up after Selena, "Yeah! You had this funny look on your face when you looked at us. Then you got all serious and started to stare at an apple of all things."

Like Selena, Lexiana had felt exposed when Thomas had looked at her. It didn't bother her as much as it did Selena. Unlike Selena, she had nothing to hide and had been rather blatant about who she was and what she wanted from Thomas. It still felt really weird when he looked at her though. Just remembering it sent a small shiver down her spine.

Thomas looked between both women and just smiled, "Just checking a change to my vision. No big deal."

He looked around at the shops surrounding them. He desperately wanted to start pulling things out of his inventory and appraising everything that he didn't have a clue about. The middle of the street was not the best place to do so though. He held back the desire and decided to do some more shopping. He still needed to restock his iron supplies as it would remain his go-to material until he could find a way to procure better materials on a regular basis. There was so much he needed to do now that he wasn't sure where he should start.

He decided that his primary goal should most definitely be 'to become stronger'. He wasn't a big-time fighter, not by a long shot. Still, he needed to at least be more than capable of defending himself so that something like the incident with the pirates wouldn't happen again. He also had so many ideas for new weapons and armor that he wanted to create to add to his base power. The stuff he had at the moment was okay but he needed stronger. He wanted to break through to the next tier of rarity and make a full set of gear in that tier. He rubbed his head furiously and felt the long black locks shaking around. For some reason, he felt it to be annoying.

"Right. Time for a haircut."

The two women looked at him with awkward expressions. He'd essentially just blown off their concerns and decided to cut his hair. Ignoring them, he looked around and quickly got directions to the nearest barber. His hair had been straight and down to his shoulders for months now, it was time for a more practical haircut. At the barber, he had his hair trimmed short with the sides and back cut into a fade while leaving the top about two inches long. Once the top was spiked up the hairstyle was completed. It gave him a somewhat more aggressive look and he appreciated that. Shorter hair would be necessary when he designed a helmet for himself.

After getting his haircut, Thomas started visiting stores to stock up on crafting supplies. He still had a large amount of gold on him and didn't buy anything too expensive. Mostly basic stuff like iron, coal, firestone, and more. He would need to make a withdrawal from the bank before he could afford higher tier materials to craft with. He did spot some material he wanted to buy, but couldn't afford while shopping. It seemed that there was a mithril mine near Kafla. From the discussions he had with the store clerks, the mine was the reason the dwarves settled there. All the mithril ore, ingots, and items were products of the dwarves. Thomas decided that instead of buying the materials here, he would buy them in Breidset, the city south of Kafla that acted as the main trading hub. He should be able to save some coin that way. Unlike plain iron, Mithril was rather expensive so he would save a fair amount when he bought it in bulk.

Ah, that reminded him of something else he needed to do. It was time for him to get an inventory upgrade! The directions for finding the mages guild were straightforward, 'Go to the tallest building'. He really had to wonder what it was with mages and towers. He wasn't about to complain about the easy to find landmark so he looked up and started heading in the direction of the tower. The last time he visited one to upgrade his inventory he'd been frightened to death about his secret being discovered and hadn't been able to pay attention to what was happening. This time it would be different.

Selena and Lexiana had followed Thomas for a while but quickly grew bored with his seemingly random exploration. Both of them had split off to do their own things leaving Thomas with just Snowlily following him. Neither woman was worried about Thomas just suddenly taking off. Both had ways to track him and knew his destination. Lexiana was even more assured as she had the promise of both Snowlily and Thomas that she could travel with them until they visited her home.

It took no time at all for Thomas to arrive at the mages guild. Once inside he found it to be similar to the last one he visited. He glanced around at the various people going about their business or sitting around reading books. He liked peaceful places like this sometimes. He let out a relaxing sigh and made his way over to the reception counter. Sitting behind it was a young man wearing traditional 'wizards' attire reading a book. As Thomas approached, the young man set the book down and gave him a polite business smile, "How can I help you?"

Thomas returned a polite smile of his own, "I was hoping to get my Inventory expanded."

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The young man nodded and quickly asked, "What rank is it at the moment?"

"Ten."

The receptionist nodded and scribbled down a note on a piece of paper, "Take this to the fourth floor, second door on the left. Mage Nielson will be able to help you out."

Thomas accepted the note and followed the directions he was given. He arrived at a door with the name tag 'Mage Nielson' on it and knocked. From behind the door came the sounds of someone fumbling around, followed by a crashing sound and irate incoherent yelling. The door in front of Thomas was ripped open to reveal a very pissed off looking Mage Nielson, "What the hell do you want?!"

Mage Nielson was an aged man with a thick white beard that completely covered the lower half of his face and ran all the way down past his waist. His pitch-black eyes seemed to glow with intensity as he glowered at Thomas. He was the spitting image of a pissed off mage. It made Thomas wonder if there was a dress and appearance code for mages of the guild. He cleared his throat and gave his best smile, "Sorry to bother you but I was sent here to get my Inventory increased."

Instantly the mages face changed into a bright smile, "Money? You brought money? Why the hell didn't you say so! Come in! Come in!"

Without waiting for Thomas's reply, Nielson grabbed him by the shoulders and physically dragged him into the room. The room was a disaster. Books and papers were scattered everywhere. Not a single surface, including the floor and ceiling, was free of clutter. Off to the side, there was an even more disorganized pile of books spilling off of the shelves of a heavily overworked bookshelf. Nielson ran around to the proper side of his desk and sat down, "Sit! Sit! Tell me what rank your Inventory is and how big you would like it to become!"

Thomas awkwardly made his way through the books on the floor to the seat opposite Nielsons. Only, the seat was completely covered in books and left him with nowhere to sit. He just shook his head and presented the note to Nielson, "It's currently rank ten and I would like to increase it to rank twelve."

He chose to increase it by two ranks so that he could have more time to study what Nielson was doing in the hopes of replicating it for himself. Nielson took the note and carelessly tossed it over his shoulder without even taking a glance at it, "Only up to twelve? Come now! I am an excellent mage! I could easily increase it up to rank twenty-five for you. I'll even give you a special discount."

Thomas had to admit he was tempted by the idea of a discount and increasing his Inventory by fifteen ranks in one go. It would give him a total capacity of twenty-five cubic meters or just under three meters cubed. Thomas decided against it and shook his head. If he couldn't learn how to do it himself he could always just buy more ranks later. Besides, even with a discount, he doubted he could afford that many ranks with the money he had on hand at the moment, "Just up to twelve will work for now. I can always come back for more later."

Nielson looked disappointed but nodded in acceptance, "Fine. For two ranks the total is going to be twenty-three thousand gold."

Thomas grimaced at the price. It seemed higher than the last time he purchased ranks in Inventory. But he couldn't exactly recall how much each rank was. Still, he had enough of his gold left and started pouring it out onto Nielson's messy desk. The greed-driven mage eagerly scooped up each piece of gold and had it disappear into his own inventory. Once the payment was made, Thomas had less than four hundred gold remaining on him. He would have to visit the bank next if he wanted to continue to buy things. After Nielson scooped up the last gold coin he smiled at Thomas, "Give me your hands."

Thomas presented his hands to Nielson and activated his 'All Seeing Eyes'. Thanks to the recent upgrades to it he could see mana particles. Combining his improved sight with the feeling of Nielson's mana flowing through his body, he hoped to pinpoint what Nielson was doing so he could replicate it himself and increase his Inventory space whenever he wanted.

Nielson grasped Thomas's wrists and began his work. Thomas carefully watched and saw that Nielson was using unattributed mana, it glowed a bluish silver in his sight. As he watched the mana move into his body he could also feel the foreign energy sinking deeper into him. He followed its course through his being until it came to a certain point just to the side of his heart. Nielson's mana began to disappear into a small black spot. From what he could see it was almost like there was a small black hole right next to his heart that greedily devoured the mana. It didn't expand in size, but a quick glance at his character sheet showed that his Inventory had increased from rank ten to rank eleven.

It took almost a full minute for Nielson to increase his Inventory from rank eleven to rank twelve. When it was done his entire attitude changed once more, "Alright! Get the fuck out and don't come back unless you bring more money!"

Snowlily growled at Nielson for his attitude, but Thomas just shrugged it off and made his way out of the cluttered office. The odds of him ever returning were minimal. With what he had seen and felt, he was certain that he could improve his own inventory from now on. It just took mana being directed to the right spot. He smiled as he closed the door behind himself and made his way down the stairs to the lobby of the mages guild. Things were on track but his next stop had to be the bank. With the little bit of gold he had left, he would barely be able to buy anything interesting.

Getting directions to the bank was easy but on the way there, Snowlily suddenly yipped at him and bit his calf. Thomas stopped and looked down at the little wolf as her tail wagged rapidly. She yipped at him again before turning her nose in a certain direction and sniffing the air. Thomas instantly knew what that meant. Good food! He grinned down at Snowlily, "Lead the way!"

Snowlily barked and took off like a bolt. Thomas laughed and quickly followed behind her. She ran through various streets for about a hundred meters before she stopped in front of a small but nice looking restaurant. She looked over her shoulder at Thomas and he could swear he saw her grinning and salivating. He couldn't blame her. Even though his sense of smell wasn't as good as hers, at this distance even he could smell the heavenly aromas wafting out of the building. They walked up to the door and the moment he opened it the heavenly aroma became divine. His mouth was instantly flooded with saliva.

Thomas looked down at the excited Snowlily and grinned broadly. Leave it to the little wolf to find the best place for food in the city. Maybe he should nickname her his 'Little Gourmet'. They found a spot to sit while their stomachs started to growl in anticipation. It'd been a long time since he'd had an excellent meal and he was greatly looking forward to it. Even if it meant going broke before he made it to the bank.