The first shop they wanted to buy from was a modest single-story building, reflecting their budget. After deducting the cost of traveling, food, and rooms and adding their quest payment, they had slightly less than 14 silvers. They were hoping to buy a few things without completely spending their savings. The door opened to a pleasant bell sound, alerting the owner of customers. To their surprise, the owner of Braum’s Store was a young man barely any older than them.
“Greetings! My name is Braum, and I have been working in this field for over five years. How may I help you?” The owner welcomed them with a bright and cheery voice, subtly looking at their gear. His eyes stopped momentarily on Lev’s short swords before moving on.
They had agreed to let Kayla take the lead, so she stepped up and replied with a slight smile and even tone. “We are looking for enchanted equipment. Is there anything you specialize in?”
A smile stretched on Braum’s face, and he spread his arms wide. “I am glad you asked. While I work with both armor and weapons, my best works are all shields. They were my inspiration, you see. I have seen some great shields during my apprenticeship. Follow me.”
They followed the enchanter to the next room, filled to the brim with armor stands and different weapons. In a corner sat five shields of varying sizes. Lev could feel mana inside all of them, knowing that they were enchanted. Braum motioned for Jack to choose one of his preferences, who tested them all one by one. He settled for a large round shield. It was dark brown in color, formed entirely without any joints or scales. When held in front of him, it covered Jack from his knees to his chest. The shield was massive.
“What's the enchantment on this?” Jack asked once he was done moving around with it, finding a good balance for his movements.
Braum replied with a practiced smile. “The shield is a solid choice for a frontline fighter. It is enchanted to distribute any impact through the entire shield, with an upper limit of course. There is also slight impact nullification, barely noticeable but helpful. Overall, it should be able to handle normal monsters up to level 85 and elite monsters up to level 75. Any skills related to shields will improve the performance further.”
Lev jogged his memory, recalling everything he knew about elite monsters. Elite monsters, like the few Orc leaders they had already faced, were always stronger than other monsters of the same level and had diverse abilities. From empowering hordes to improved stealth, it was recommended to face them with a full team no lower than five levels below it.
Jack inspected the shield in a new light, nodding towards Kayle to confirm his liking. Kayla asked Braum for the price, but he just waved her off and asked them to look around and pick up anything else appealing to them before getting to it. Lev and his friends gazed around, only finding two more things worthy of note.
Putting the things on the counter, Braum first picked up the sword. “A fire-enhancement sword. Any skills related to heating up your sword will be more efficient. Common skills like fire slash will also see an improvement.” Braum nodded once he was done. “A fine sword.”
Looking confused at Amelia’s doubtful face, he asked what the issue was. Amelia thought for a few moments before replying.
“My skills can use heat as fuel instead of mana. How would the sword react to that?”
Braum was already nodding before she finished. “I see where you are coming from. There have been extensive studies of similar cases using raw fuels instead of mana. The System recognizes the equipment, so it should not be an issue even if you use heat directly. If, for some reason, the sword does not work as advertised, you may return it freely without any charges.”
That mollified her concerns, and they moved on to the last item. “It is a simple ice condenser. Put in some water through this opening and mana through the specified area, and it will slowly freeze the water. Highly useful for cooling down water for drinking or for any other uses.”
They decided to buy it because who didn’t like drinking cool water? When it came to the cost, the enchanter remained silent for a minute before replying. “The shield is quite extraordinary for its materials and level range. The sword is also above average in both make and enchantment. I can give you all three items at nine silvers.”
Kayla stood straighter and immediately protested. “That is far too high. We have checked other stores, and we could get the same equipment in seven silvers or less.”
Braum was aghast at the offer. “Those pieces would not even be comparable to mine. Only the best is sold at my store. Eight silvers and seventy-five bronze.”
What followed was a polite and fierce exchange, with Kayla unwilling to pay anything more than eight silvers and Braum unwilling to go lower than eight and a half silvers. Eventually, the enchanter proposed an alternative.
“Tell you what, show me what those hollow-edge short swords are supposed to do, and I will give you these for eight silvers.”
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Everyone looked at Lev, and he shrugged. It was no big issue if people could see what his swords did. He walked up to the counter and unsheathed one of them. Once Braum had a good view of them, he slowly filled out the edges with a sharp barrier. Braum looked at the now-filled sword from different angles, a thoughtful look on his face. He was about to say something when Lev made the barriers spin. His mouth clicked shut, and understanding dawned on him.
“I see… so the… constructs? Fill the pathways and create a loop. It also utilizes your class skills, getting the bonuses despite not being a part of the class.” The enchanter muttered as he observed the sword intently. “Thank you. This has been an enlightening experience. What are the constructs made of?”
“Barriers,” Lev clarified.
Braum blinked. “What a peculiar class.” He was already distracted, taking the payment before shooing them off.
The next stop was a shop dedicated to traveling equipment. Lev wanted to make full use of the Ice Condenser, so he bought a bigger water container. The ice cubes produced by the condenser were big enough to barely fit in his hand, perfect for cooling large quantities of water instead of their small refillable bottle.
With their shopping pretty much done, they went back to their rooms to drop off additional equipment. The Guilds did not take kindly to any sort of theft, so they kept them in the rooms without concerns. The Hunters Guild was crowded, the imminent wave taking up most of the attention of the city. Fortunately, a lot of training rooms were currently unoccupied, and they paid five bronze to book one for two hours.
The room was small, meant for dueling. Kayla and Jack sat on the chairs by the door to observe the sword users. Lev and Amelia stood next to each other, three meters apart. They decided not to use any enhancements and instead relied on pure skill to observe and train. Passive skills could not be turned off, so Lev would have increased perception and dexterity during the duel. Not that he minded. He could barely hope to survive a minute, even with them. His opponent's passive sword fighting improvement skills gave her a massive edge. Kayla counted down, and the duel began.
Amelia ran forward and closed the distance in an instant, showing the difference between their physical stats. Her steps were measured, and her attacks were efficient and smooth. Lev, on the other hand, couldn’t have moved more awkwardly. With his slightly higher dexterity, and much better perception, he deflected every attack he could and dodged the others by a hair’s breadth. He jumped back to avoid horizontal attacks, sidestepped vertical attacks, and deflected diagonal attacks to the best of his ability. The game of tag continued for two minutes, and neither of them still winded because of the increased constitution, before Amelia finally couldn’t stay quiet anymore.
“Why are you not attacking?” She asked between swings.
“HOW??” Lev yelled back, getting dangerously close to being hit.
Amelia burst out laughing, and even the spectators joined her. Lev just stood there in embarrassment, waiting for them to calm down. Just like that, the duel ended. For all his progress and talent in mana manipulation, Lev couldn’t match Amelia for the life of him.
The sparring continued for another two hours before they were too tired to continue.
****
Lev and his friends found themselves in Lev’s room again. It was becoming a common occurrence, one that Lev had no issues with, apart from mercilessly getting teased for fighting like a slippery rat. Jack was especially appalled by his style, talking about how it was the antithesis of everything manly. Lev couldn’t see the issue. His class was designed to work like that as well.
Thankfully, the conversation soon moved on to more useful topics. They started with his weapon of choice.
“You have only ever held short swords, so we can never know how you fare with others. What about a longsword or a great sword? You can create weapons out of barriers. If you can imitate them reliably while keeping them light, your striking speed amplified by barrier manipulation should be enough, right? You would need to put in more effort to make up for the lost weight, but it might be worth it.” Amelia explained her reasoning, which was surprisingly sound. Lev’s first thought was to use weapons suitable for his stats. If he could become proficient with utilizing his barrier skill with melee weapons, other weapons could be equally effective or even surpass them.
“I agree. All of your skills are designed to attack from range. Why would you want to get so close in the first place? As much as it pains me to admit it, running circles around your enemies would be much more effective while keeping yourself out of reach.” Jack explained, caressing his chest as if the words hurt him on a spiritual level. Lev looked to Kayla for her opinion.
She just shrugged with a simple, “Slay.”
Chuckling, all of them relaxed till nightfall and went to sleep, ready to wake up early to join another patrol. Not knowing that they would be woken up by a bell instead.