I blinked my eyes as I came out of the portal. Damn light spots. People tell me I am imagining things but I swear, further we go with the portal, the worse it gets. So anyway, the city of the demigods! finally here. This is my first trip here, as I am new to the group. I look around the place and think it mostly similar to most portal areas I seen, but indoors until I look upwards and am rooted by what I see. Stars! and two huge round circular objects! Plus a very far off ball of light far away. My jaw suddenly drops as my education suddenly connects.
"We're in space!" I blurted out. The rest of the group start laughing and my uncle cursing hands over some coin to the leader of the group. She turns to me and smiles.
"Well done for working that out Franky. You be surprised at how long it takes some people to twig. I knew you were a clever fella." I blush at this, since i have a bit of a crush on our leader. She may be several years older then me, but she looks only a few years older and has a body that most women would kill for. But it not that which ultimately attracts me. Well, not all that does. She smart, kind and does not take any shit from no-one. One of the smaller villages we passed through, the headman tried to bypass her in favour of talking to a man as he put it. He soon changed his tune after Sario then ordered us to keep on moving on.
"My own flesh and blood let me down!" Said my uncle mock aggrieved. Then laughed. "You were always a quicker thinker then your da is for sure. Should keep that in mind." Dressed in dark leather and with his skill set, most people seemed to forget my uncle was around. We had used this to our advantage more then once over our journey and it had gotten us out of some sticky stiuations.
"Definitely more educated then most of us." Laughed the biggest member of our crew. Dressed in hard armour, Most people couldn't get over how big he was. He did have the blood of gaints in him and ranking up along with his skills had only added to it. It was no surpise he was the tank of our group.
"Stop teasing the poor lad, the lot of you. Look how red he going" Chided the last member of the group. Kind, softly spoken and an excellent healer, it could be startling when she was in the middle of a battle and suddenly turned into a full on battle priestess, complete with rage. She had followed her God for a long time, but did not attempt to preach. But if you asked her to expand on her God, be prepared to listen for a while!
"Right. Unfortunately Franky, we don't have the time to show you around. Need to get back to the family as soon as. So we going to sell to one of the guys over the back there." My uncle then smiled deviously. "But tell you what, to make up for it, we let you choose which demigod we will sell to." I gulped at this. If I chose wrong, we could end up with a crappy payment.
"Don't be so mean to him Shad." Scolded Sario. She then turned to me and spoke. "Honestly, it won't matter on the payment, but doing this is an art in and of itself, so we are quite curious as to who you pick and why. Consider this a training experience." I was a new epic. Having been born to two legendary level, I somehow managed to start off an epic. This was rare, as normally, people became epic as a choice over demigod. Those like me, could actually become a demigod, since we were born epic rank. It was advised to get experience first, as many people who didn't, ended up here and no further. So I was being gradually trained as a replacement for a member of the group I was with, that had decided to "Run off and make stuff" as he had put it when he left. While it left the group a member short, It just meant they could not take on dungeons until they had a fifth member. Which was going to be me, but after I had trained and equipped myself to a satisfactory level. So in the meantime, they took on more normal quests or just generally roamed about, adjusting me. I was nearly there, Training was mostly done, It was just equipment I now needed to stock up on.
I looked over the people sat against the back of the wall. Some of them made me feel uneasy, so I discounted them straight away. Others I was feeling quite friendly towards and I also dismissed them. Obviously it was an aura type of thing, but I had been warned not to be taken in by those. I suddenly paused as I looked at one gentleman down the wall. He had an aura, but it was neither good or bad. It was just there. A neutral aura. That was a strange one. While people could disguise themselves with the others, a neutral aura could be not be counterfeited. I looked at the man closely. Most Demigod who excelled in power, were musclebound younger people. Mental paths tended to go for older, more reassuring looking faces. This man however....
He looked early 30s. He had the sort of build my team leader had, but his body movements did not mimic hers. He more reminded me of the merchant back home. Which, would make sense considering these people were here to buy or sell. But there was something about him. Others were displaying wares and putting on a show. Some were sort of hidden away, transactions prepared to be shielded from everyone else. This demigod however, there was something in his eyes. I decided to ask him a question.
"Can you do identify services?"
"Yes." Hhhhmmm. that was rare. Useful to us too, since I knew we had a few pieces that we had no idea what they were. Weapons and equipment my uncle and our tank, Tedd could normally identify to around legendary rank. but materials, we didnt have a clue on.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Methods of payment?"
"I am willing to pay in coinage, barter or collection coins. for the identify services, If you sell to me, I will identify for free. Any that you choose to keep after I identify, I will ask 3% of what it worth." This was also unusual. I been told that most demigods along here would only offer one or two of the methods, yet here was someone who could do all three. Plus, the price he offered for his identify services were 2% lower then normal. I nodded to him and mumbled be back. I made my way back to the group.
"Made your choice Franky?" I suddenly realised with some embarrassment I had forgotten to ask the demigod name. I nodded and led my group back to the demigod in question. Sario began negotiations.
"Hello, my name is Sario. We are looking for somebody to sell to. However some of what we have is undentified and we would like to know what they are before we sell. We are also interested in seeing if you can take on a commission to find a weapon for our newest member here which we can pick up on our way back through." My jaw dropped and I moved to protest. "You need a weapon Franky. The next part of the training we hope to do with you will require a weapon suited to you. Your dad old sword, is not it." They were not wrong. I had been trained in a variety of weapons, but the only one I had that was of epic rank was my dad old sword. It was a good sword. However my sword skill was not so good. I was best rated in axes and crossbows. I had hoped to scour the market here to find something, even though I was unsure if I be able to afford it.
"I am Tinkerson" replied the demigod. "I can certainly identify the materials. If we get that part out of the way first, then total up the value of everything and you can decide if you want to keep, sell or barter it all. The rest, we can talk about at the end." Sario nodded acceptance to this, and pulled out the seven materials we had been unable to identify. The rest we had, even if it was of higher quality, because the team had come across them before. These however, were a mystery.
"Three of them are of Heroic quality, two of them are legendary, and two are of epic." My jaw dropped at this. All of this had came from a trove from our toughest opponent on the other world. It had been my toughest fight to date and looks to have really paid off. "This epic in particular is worth particularly much, as it can be used in divine ranked workings without bringing overall quality down." This was huge. I probably be able to get both the axe and crossbow with my share. "Will you show me the rest?" Sario brought out our most prized possession as a group. A legendary ranked dimensional bag. It was this that enabled us to go for years at a time, holding on to the best to sell back here, as the city of the demigods would normally provide the best prices. She looked enquiringly at Tinkerson who just focused on the bag, and then nodded calmly at her.
"I have totalled up the raw materials in the bag, is there anything else you wish to sell in that?" We all blinked at that. To be able to do that, meant the guy had one hell of an indentify feature. Sario then answered him
"Aaahhhh, we wouldnt mind selling some of the other stuff we have here." She then listed what was for sale. Tinkerson nodded and then looked at me. I felt something strange pass through me and I swore. It wasn't just an identify skill this demigod had. He could see everyone on me, and about me. "May I ask why you just did that to Franky?" Sario's voice was like ice. Tinkerson blinked and then said.
"My apologies, I should have asked first. Since you wanted me to get him equipment, I thought I would see what he has and his skills so I can see what best to get him." The whole team fell silent. This was a rare service, that normally cost a lot. We were just going to give him some general specifics and hope he would be able to help us.
"aaahhhh, what is that service going to cost us?" Tinkerson eyes suddenly flickered. A sign that a skill had just kicked in.
"I didn't realise I could charge for that. I am somewhat new to this side. However, the reason I did this was because I have a proposal to make. How much are you willing to spend on Franky here.
"The whole lot." I suddenly let out a squeak. and Sario looked at me. "If he about to offer what I think he is, we be a fool not to take it. The group had talked about this, and we were prepared to do this just for the weapons. However, I think our friend here has something else in mind."
"Indeed. I noticed from your bag youare relatively well stocked for I am guessing your next expedition. Was there anything else you were hoping to source?"
"No. We were planning to head on a journey to get some equipment and weapons augnments for Franky here and so we stocked accordingly."
"So you don't need any fancy stuff as it were, just well made with slots for those augnments and possibly a born one imprinted on them?"
"If you can get that" Said Sario dubiously. Tinkerson then turned to me.
"I recommend you keep that ring as part of your new outfit, as it apparently is scalable." I nodded, as I knew that about the ring. "I provide everything else to at least an epic quality. My word and power on that." This was huge. Most of my stuff was legendary, with a couple of heroics and my father epic sword. To get what he was proposing, would be a major upgrade.
"Why?" I asked. "Why are you offering this? I imagine the material you talked about would be worth some, but this is a big deal." Tinkerson regarded me for a minute before addressing the whole group.
"I am relatively new to the academy. As a result, I am still in the building the foundations of my power stage. What you have in this bag would allow me to advance that. Plus, I would also like to talk about the possibility of this group doing some work for me and sourcing some materials."
"You have a deal." Said Sario holding out her hand. They finalised on a time to come back and Tinkerson then transported all that we were selling into what seemed to be a dimensional space. A true skill of worth. Some epics could get it, but it was a very rare power. Nearly all demigods had it though. We then walked to the portal to go home. I looked back at Tinkerson, who seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then watched as he walked purposely towards the entrance to the main market.
"Don't worry lad, we have a proper look around when we come back" Said uncle Shad. I nodded and then walked through the portal with the rest of my crew.