The first big break for Sam was when a blacksmith, named Victor, brought in a sound dampening enchanted anvil. Sam agreed to try and fix it in exchange for the blacksmith teaching him about the different metals that were available, and how he tempered the metals for making all different kinds of items from horseshoes to swords.

Victor turned out to be a high-level blacksmith who did a lot of work for the major guilds. It was a double win for Sam; he basically obtained an enchantment that he could use to make silencers for their guns, and he gained knowledge about different metals that could help him in making better quality enchantments.

The silencing rods were mana-intensive; they identified the sound waves coming from the anvil and sent out a counter-sine wave to negate the noise. That was when Sam had an epiphany. He created another space ring, but added the runes for identifying sound waves, but only sounds waves, and then increased the absorption area to anything within five feet of the ring. The ring would store any sound waves made within 5 feet when activated. His space rings saved the day again when it came to mana usage. It took much more mana to create something like the counter-sine wave from nothing, than it did to just store incoming sound waves into a space ring.

A few weeks later, a local jeweler brought in a broken enchanted engraving tool. The enchantment, when working properly, would cause the tip of the tool to spin like a drill head. Sam easily fixed the tool, but then with the help of Victor built a dremel tool that would allow him to engrave enchantments directly into iron, steel, and the other precious metals he discovered worked well with enchantments. The dremel enchantment was a huge mana suck, but Sam couldn’t figure out any method to decrease the mana usage this time.

While Sam was working on enchantments, Jen was using her psych skill to gather intel on just about everything that might help them.

“Captain Tamako, would you be so kind as to introduce me to you friend?” said an older tall man that walked up to Tamako and Jen while they were attending an outside theatre event.

Tamako bowed, and replied, “Of course, Duke Card, this is Mistress Jen of the new enchantments and charms shop in the City.”

Jen didn’t sense any cause for alarm or concern from either Tamako or Duke Card. After a few minutes of exchanging niceties, Duke Card said, “Mistress Jen, might I have my head Ranger contact Master Sam for a confidential meeting to discuss her armor?”

“Of course, Duke Card, here is a note with my sound-wave contact information you can give her. I will be happy to make a private, and very confidential, appointment at her convenience.”

When they were alone again, Tamako said, “Duke Card is the only true Noble in Casino City. He actually puts the interests of his people before his own personal gain.”

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“Really!” replied Jen in surprise.

“Yes, really. The System creates a flood of gambling quests all over the City when his estate is looking to take on a new hire.”

A few days later, Sam and Jen were contacted by Ranger Vicki and invited out to Duke Card’s estate to inspect the Ranger’s leather armor.

“This armor has been used by the Head Ranger of the Duke’s family for over three hundred years. It contains strength enhancing enchantments. Unfortunately, while I was hunting a spiked basilisk about five years ago, its fire attack warped the enchantment.The armor is next to useless without the enchantments working,” explained Ranger Vicki.

Sam nodded at Vicki’s explanation and picked the armor up off the display rack to inspect the enchantments more closely.

Ranger Vicki was as impatient and worried as an expectant mother, and after no more than a few moments of Sam inspecting it, she said, “Master Sam, please tell me you can fix the armor!”

Sam could hear the love for the armor in Ranger Vicki’s voice, and replied sympathetically, “Ranger Vicki, I truly wish I could say yes, but working with enchantment-laced leather is beyond my skill. I was hoping the enchantments were etched on metal sewn into the leather.”

Ranger Vicki’s look of disappointment was heartbreaking to see.

Jen spoke up, and said, “I’m not sure how expensive it would be, but we could try purchasing a leather-working technique scroll from the System Shop.”

Ranger Vicki nodded while frowning a little in thought, and said partly to herself and to Jen, “He would need a high-level technique scroll to work with mana-infused leather, and I bet The Shop would charge 8 to 10 gold for one.”

Jen replied apologetically, “I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to front that kind of cost or take that much of a loss if my father is unable to fix the enchantments after using the scroll.”

“How much would you charge to fix the armor if you were able to get a scroll?”

Sam just shrugged at Jen leaving the decision to her, and she said, “Normally, we don’t charge anything if we can’t fix an enchantment. However, in this case we would have to charge the cost of the scroll, even if the enchantment can’t be fixed, but…if it can be fixed, we would agree to charge you nothing extra above the cost of the technique scroll.”

Ranger Vicki nodded at Jen and held up her hand in a motion requesting them to wait as she walked to the other side of the room and spoke with someone using her sound-wave.

“What are they saying?” texted Sam.

Jen texted back, “I’m not using my skill to eavesdrop on Vicki. It just seems like it would be ‘wrong’”.

Sam rolled his eyes at her with a slight smile when he read her reply.

Jen could tell Sam thought she was being silly, but in no way was he upset or going to ask her to do otherwise.

Vicki returned with a smile on her face, and said, “Done. Up to 10 gold on a scroll, any amount you don’t need to be returned.”

“Would you like us to prepare a contract?” asked Jen.

“No. Duke Card does not like contracts. However, I would warn you against thinking you can take advantage of his trust.”

“Of course not," replied Jen. "We just like to use contracts to make sure that there is no misunderstanding between good people regarding the requested work. So, just to be extra careful and clear since we won’t be using a formal contract …”

Sam only half listened to Jen discuss the details of their agreement with Vicki as he started studying the enchantments on the armor some more.

As Sam and Jen were getting ready to leave, Ranger Vicki said, “One last thing, be careful, I heard the Farmer’s Guild is angry about you helping the independent farmers with their crop production.”